Unrequited in Space

Once-adored
Callisto
has grown cold,
her love
marginalized
by great, sun-like
Jupiter—all the while
spinning his own
redacted version
of the solar system.
She
remains stuck
in permanent
tidal lock,
at the greatest
Galilean distance
possible
from the enormous
molten God. When
you think of it,
though,
it's really not
her fault
she gets jealous
sometimes. After all,
her selfish little
inner sister-
moon, Io—perpetually
closer to
fiery Jupiter's
magnetic heart—has
always been
spoiled, always been
allowed to be
the hot one!

Will H. Blackwell Jr. is an emeritus professor (botany), Miami University, Ohio, presently living in Tuscaloosa, AL, where he is adjunct in Biological Sciences at The University of Alabama. His poems have appeared in Blue Unicorn, Disturbed Digest, Illumen, Outposts of Beyond, Scifaikuest, and Star*Line, among other journals.

Find more by Will H. Blackwell Jr. in the Author Index.