Andrew

Dodekatemoria: 4. Cancer of Aries

This is a poem in this series of 144 poems that I’m writing based on the dodeks, or twelfth parts, of the Zodiac signs. As far as I know, everybody else calls them dodekatemoria, but that’s a very complicated word to say, so I just call them dodeks.

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Cancer of Aries: The Homeless House

7° Aries 30′ to 9° Aries 59′

Kitchen cupboards still hold some pots and pans;

there’s a chair by the hearth.  A rolled-up rug

uncovers the homeowner’s future plans

like the stained and moldy half-empty mug

forgotten in a bathroom weeks ago.

The dining room table hasn’t been sold

but the silver and china were let go.

The beds have been stripped, and their rooms are cold.

Neighbors share rumors. Realtors leave brochures,

and someday some family will call this place home

after some rounds of twenty-minute tours.

For now, though, it’s a house that can’t be shown.

No one lives here, but they haven’t yet left:

a suburban ghost-ship — empty, adrift.

Image: An adult locks the door of the family home while their elder parents ride in an ambulance to the hospital.

Important Relationships

  • Part of the:
    • Term of Venus
    • Decan I of Aries (administrated by Mars): The Double-Bladed Axe

Colophon

This is a part of a series of poems based on the dodekatemoria, or twelfth parts, of the Zodiac signs. The dodekatemoria are sub-segments of the Zodiac, each representing two degrees thirty minutes (2° 30′) of arc; there are 144 dodeks (as I call them) in the full Zodiac, or twelve in each sign. Each dodek is supposed to be a recapitulation or miniature repetition or summary of its parent zodiac sign, as though it were filtered through the lens of the main sign.

The Sun crosses this distance of 2° 30′ in about two and a half days, making these dodeks cognate with the Moon, which crosses one sign of the Zodiac, or thirty degrees (30°) in about two and a half days. The Sun’s passage through a dodek thus mirrors the Moon’s passage through a sign, and squeezes a “mini-year” of passage through twelve signs into a single month.

Each series of dodeks begins at 0° 00′ of its parent sign with the same sign, and there are four dodeks in each sequence of 10° degrees. Each poem in this series will give a (my) name of the dodek, its relevant degrees, a sonnet describing it, a 1-2 sentence description of the dodek, and some other information.

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