day, then the long counts begin. After one-hundred
and twenty-eight
years, the need to take a day out—
as the osprey pulls a salmon from the sea

or the knave steals a tart. Penelope, star
undoer, keeps 128 suitors
at bay, while her husband cycles.
At Arthur’s table, 128 Knights.

26,000 years
for the pole to "precess," to draw its circle
in the sky and return to the star
where it started out, while the Zodiac belt

slips backward through its signs.
2000 years ago we came
to the Age of Fishes, rising horizon at the vernal