When Mercury Is In Retrograde

When we were young
It was ok to play with Mercury
Break off the end of old thermometers
And pour it out in your hand
Marvelling at the heaviness of it
It seemed to have a mind of its own
As it rolled backwards and onto the kitchen floor
Dividing itself into millions of small Mercuries
That we would push together with our fingers
That became silver and shiny from it
It was ok
It wasn't poison then.

Now Mercury is flying backwards
Like Uranus
And crazy Jupiter has returned to
Normal
Last night the space station
Flew overhead
The space shuttle did a back flip
To hook up with it
We had calculated its trajectory
60 Degrees NNW to 17 Degrees SE
We waited for it to do its flyby
And at precisely 9:21 CDT it appeared
Over the chimney
She said it looked like a flying "X"
Visible for only three minutes
Full of humans
Who had made the decision
To look at Mercury
Flying backwards through the universe.