The Known Universe

He pointed to the page and said
“put a sun in here, a star”
something to remind your reader of the infinite.
“Put the infinite here,” he said.
I didn’t think Polaris or Adytia, I thought war,
which went on before and after,
throughout the known and unknown universe.









Wendy Taylor Carlisle lives and works in the Arkansas Ozarks. She is the author of Reading Berryman to the Dog (Jacaranda Books, 2000) and Discount Fireworks (Jacaranda Books, 2008) and three chapbooks. Her most recent publication is Persephone on the Metro, a chapbook from MadHat Press (2014). She has been 9 times nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work is widely available online and is anthologized. Some of her publications are linked online at www.wendytaylorcarlisle.com