ARECIBO

suspended above the sink-hole like a metal seed pod:
a Gregorian dome, spidered aloft by whitened wires
over the equator's navel--a freckle on the map

your tensile threads snapped that unlucky Monday in January
interrupting the power to intercept asteroids
that could splinter the earth and splatter the ground

but you look like a thrill ride

buoyed above the rippled foliage on the undulating northern shore
for tourists from land and space