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 Taurus: Elders and Juniors
5° Libra 00′ to 7° Libra 29′
The dinner is early because they’re old,
and conversation drags like wheelchair wheels.
It’s hard to speak plain — and no one is sold
on next steps — and no opinions or “feels”
will make it past the nursing home’s front desk.
The folks here watch each other with keen eyes,
listen for loss of wits, frown on “fall risk”
and dementia — and tell pretty lies
about their own health. We poke at our food,
vaguely unenthused, dreading an evening
where this care becomes the prevailing mood:
dull meals, with silence accompanying
each visit you make to Dad, or Mother,
where no one wants to talk to each other.
Image: A family of older adults sit with their canes and wheelchairs in a restaurant or tavern eating together.
Important Relationships
- Part of Ptolemy’s Term of Mercury
- Part of Decan I of Taurus (administrated by Venus): The Plough
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.
