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Notes

The lines “this is the new Eve” and “she brings the Book of Life, obviously” come from H.D.’s “Tribute to the Angels.” H.D., Trilogy, edited by Aliki Barnstone. New York: New Directions, 1998, 101.
 
The lines “Aries, the Ram; / time, time for you to begin a new spiral” come from H.D.’s The Walls Do Not Fall. H.D., Trilogy, 30.
 
I am also indebted to Aliki Barnstone’s excellent “Readers’ Notes.” In H.D., Trilogy, 173-201.
 
The quoted fragments in [4] and [6] are from [Astrology: notes 1960]. The quoted material in [8] is from [Horoscope reading for Erich Heydt]. H.D. refers to her daughter, Frances Perdita (Aldington) Macpherson Schaffner, as “The Fire Girl” in a star chart drawn on a sheet of notebook paper [Astrology: horoscopes 1953-59]. Perdita is referred to as “Pup” in a book of star charts executed for H.D. by Silvia Dobson. I continue to refer to this book in sections 9-11. H.D. Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Biography

Rachel Feder is an assistant professor of English and literary arts at the University of Denver. She is the author of a poetry chapbook, Words With Friends (dancing girl press, 2014), a book-length serial poem, Bad Romanticisms (Astrophel Press, 2018), and a hybrid prose work, Harvester of Hearts: Motherhood under the Sign of Frankenstein (forthcoming from Northwestern University Press later this summer). You can read more of her astrology poems here.

Fundraiser

Other People’s Scorpions is an astrology poem for a good cause! Moonchild Magazine and Rachel would love it if you contributed in support of a bail fund set up by the Congress of Day Laborers/Congreso de Jornaleros to prevent retaliation against immigrant human rights leaders organizing to pass anti-bias policies in Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans, and to help prevent the separation of immigrant parents from their families following routine traffic stops. In Kenner, the detention of immigrants for traffic violations is commonplace, and Congreso leaders have documented many cases of abuse. For example, a Kenner mother, Mayra, was torn away from her infant son for two months after Kenner police arrived at the scene of an accident where Mayra had been hit. Mayra was not responsible for the crash, but she was transferred to an ICE detention center. Congreso’s fund provides money to release immigrants from police custody before they are transferred to ICE.

To contribute to the bail fund, you can donate directly to the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice and designate Kenner Bail Fund, Attn: Chloe Sigal.

Thank you for reading and for taking part in this small-scale, poetry-based fundraiser!