Planetary Signatures

THE WEAVE:

Vesta calls Mars

on the Dreaming Sea…

"Hey buddy.  I'm swimming
into your neighborhood,"
Vesta says.

"Bummer," Mars answers
back, "I was just leaving."
"So soon?" V asks.

"Neptune's ice-cube was boring
the shit out of me.  Where
on the Dreaming Sea are you

headed?" Mars asks her.
"I dunno," V sighs,
"I'm just, like, floating

around, and reading
a book."  "What else
is new," Mars smirks.

"You should really think
about joining my book club,"
Vesta insists.

"Lilith and I are
still working on that one
about leaders with mood

disorders," Mars tells her,
"Did you know, Gandhi, 
Abraham Lincoln, and MLK

are in there?"  he asks Vesta.
"No," V says, "But be 
careful using that

as a justification for whatever
you make your campaign,
in Aries.  Actually,

this book might be
helpful to you, as you
enter the Flame-Zone.

It's all about being
invisible.  It's called
'How to Disappear'

by Akiko Busch."
"I don't want to disappear,"
Mars tells Vesta,

"I've been exiled long
enough."  Vesta drones over him,
"She says, 'Poetry may be

the medium best suited
for invisibility.  She speaks
about how kids use 

imaginary friends, to develop
real live social skills,
and explore relationship."

"So what about adults
with imaginary friends?"
Mars asks her.

"Beats me," Vesta shrugs,
"I'm not an adult.  I'm a planet."
"Technically, you are

categorized as an asteroid,"
Mars corrects her.
"She says, Steven Wallace says,

'Poets are the priests
of the invisible.'"
Vesta carries on. 

"How's the weather
up there, on your high
horse?" Mars teases her.

"She says, make believe
conversations help children
to solve social puzzles,

and make cognitive leaps."
Vesta ignores him.
"And do you find that

to be a real assessment
of our value?" Mars wonders
back at her.  "She says,

'Whether something is
real or not, is
 irrelevant,'"  Vesta shrugs.

Mars sighs, "Listen, V,
I gotta go be somebody, but
enjoy your Time, in the Ocean

of Ideas."

MARS HANGS UP.