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 Leo: High Tide at Noon
27° Leo 30′ to 29°Leo 59′
The beach crowd gets friendlier and closer,
as rising waters whittle away land.
Beach jock sits beside the fat old grocer,
'cause there's no room for football on this strand.
With space between dunes and seaweed squeezed tight,
each shadow shrinks to rare commodity;
but waters will sink with oncoming night
and the pink hues of sunset's tapestry.
The seals enjoy their little extra space,
though a shark may lurk in the churning surf,
and seagulls shriek like landlords for their place:
this section of beach their usual turf.
But they're like mobsters — if you feed just one,
the whole flock finds you, ere the day is done.
Image: A family feeds French fries to a seagull on a crowded beach. A crowd of gulls is gathering, hovering over the scene.
Important Relationships
- Part of the Egyptian Term of Jupiter in Leo
- Part of the Egyptian Term of Saturn in Leo
- Part of Decan III of Leo (administrated by Mars): The Banner
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.
