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Laura Finnell


Manifest Destiny

Pluto waits
on the western frontier  - 
Dodge City, Kansas.
Her dusty boots
are crossed at the ankle,
biding time, leaning on the edge rail
until the Bostoners ride out
on titanium horses
to exclaim at her small, cold beauty.

They'll have to give war parties
the slip, meteor showers
with molten arrowheads;
silent, hidden asteroid belts.
Avoid the thrall and pull
of gas giants, legends
larger-than-life-as-we-know-it.
Pluto will wait.
In the meantime, she practices
lassoing the sun.



Laura Finnell lives in Olympia, WA with her husband and three cats. She is a member of Seattle's Mercer Street Poets workshop and has been published in Arnazella, Slightly West, and 4th Street. See her other poem this issue, Little Sister


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2.18.2001
Arianna Apelgren from Kalamazoo, MI

interesting connections with astronomy
after reading both of the poems miss finnell has in this issue that each of them pertain to astronomy in some way. they both have something to do with heavenly bodies, though it would seem that both of the poems are about completely different topics. i really enjoyed this one, however, because i could make connections with what was going on in the piece to things i have seen in my life or things that i see every day. it was, to say the least, extremely intriguing.







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