Planet Alignment: A Moment Of Pure Glass

The scent of frozen cedar needles clings to the evening air. The sun vanishes. I watch the shadows of the oaks stretch into long black fingers that grasp at the coming purple of the dusk. This Saturday evening the Texas sky will peel back its blue skin to reveal the clockwork of the heavens. I noticed the light of the horizon fading into a bruise of indigo. I’d argue that the arrival of six planets across the western and southern sky serves as a silent metronome for the soil beneath our boots. The Austin American-Statesman reports that this parade includes Venus alongside Mercury with Saturn and Neptune plus Uranus and Jupiter. The sky is a bell jar. I’m of the mind that we are witnessing the cold geometry of a giant. Space holds its breath. But the planets do not care for our smallness. After much deliberation I find that the sight of these spheres makes the gravity of the Earth feel like a tether rather than a floor. Venus acts as a bright hook in the velvet. Mercury remains a shy spark near the hem of the world. Saturn and Neptune drift in the deep water of the atmosphere. Uranus and Jupiter finish the arc with the weight of heavy silver coins dropped into a well. My pulse settles into the rhythm of the orbits. And the stars are only white stitches in the dark. I feel a strange weightlessness in my chest as the alignment clarifies my place in the silent machinery of the solar system. The cold grease of the wind slicks my cheeks. It is a moment of pure glass.

Zoom In

Jupiter appears as a heavy pearl through the lens. The moons of the giant circle the sphere like frantic moths around a porch light. I noticed the bands of the planet resemble layers of ancient silt. Saturn wears its rings like a stiff collar of ice. The light from these distant bodies travels through the void to land on my retina with the precision of a needle. It is a sharp gift.

The orbit is a cage. But the view is a window. I’m of the mind that the silence of the Texas plains provides the only stage large enough for this procession. The planets march. We watch.

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