A Cinquain Zodiac 

by Shari Zollinger
Illustrations by Holli Zollinger

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ARIES

March 21 to April 19

 

If you 

require a 

season all to yourself, 

might I suggest you opt for spring? 

Begin. 

TAURUS

April 20 to May 20

 

Don’t go 

until we’ve sown 

our final seed. Our knees 

together upon this marl of 

kindness. 

GEMINI

May 21 to June 21

 

And, like 

school friends we locked 

arms and we twirled and twirled, 

until the world we imagined 

surfaced. 

CANCER

June 22 to July 22

 

Just once, 

I will whisper, 

and you will feel me as 

a devotion of wind on skin. 

Again? 

LEO

July 23 to August 22

 

You’ll tell 

us what you’ll need, 

and we will begin our 

search right away. Stars upon the 

footpath. 

 


VIRGO

August 23 to September 23

 

What else 

have you been up 

to since I saw you last? 

I heard you found a small house and 

two cats. 

LIBRA

September 24 to October 22

 

Picture 

the time we left 

our shoes in the sand, when 

water and light resoled 

the night. 

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SCORPIO

October 23 to November 21

 

Bravely, 

I’ll lead you through 

layers of sediment, 

the geology that is my 

body. 

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SAGITTARIUS

November 22 to December 21

 

Two wings 

hinged at the 

base of your boots. Where 

will you go this time, traveler? 

And when?

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CAPRICORN

December 22 to January 19

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They will 

call you a root 

system, un-solar, come 

in from blue-black germination. 

Soil stars. 

 

AQUARIUS

January 20 to February 18

 

Darts and 

a bullseye, we 

play together until, 

surprisingly, we hit the mark 

at once. 

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PISCES

February 19 to March 20

 

Breeching, 

you’ll burst from the 

water unaware of 

anything but the urgent search 

for air. 

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