The Orange Hole

Linda Kunhardt

 The Pleiades has three cosmic orbs
ordered by Goldfish Cities, Incorporated. 
An aspect of distinction
             is part of our operation:
making an atomic chicken.

It’s our finest offer to date.

Goldfish have two Plea Deal orbs
ordered by Comic Cities, Incorporated—
making a space station
             a suspect of suspicion, it’s
part ersatz legislation.

It’s our worst offer to date.

The cosmos has one goldfish orb
ordered by Peach City, Incorporated.
Is part of an ambition
             to remake the cluster system
a prospect of extinction?

Linda Kunhardt’s poems have appeared in Brittle Star, Tender, Poetry, The New Yorker, New Letters, The American Poetry Review, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. She received the Poetry Foundation’s Bess Hokin Prize in 2012. She runs writing workshops at the Belknap County Jail in Laconia, New Hampshire.