Poetic License Horoscopes for October 28-November 3

Scorpio (Oct. 22-Nov. 22): Like the characters in the pretty good but maybe not so long lived new show Once Upon a Time, you might feel as if time is standing still. If you pay attention like the little hero of the story, though, you’ll see the town clock start to move.

Sagittarius (Nov. 23-Dec. 22): Enjoy your homecoming, brief though it may be. Settle into your bones, you childhood bed, the cats you used to sit for. Pray to the light-up subway map in your heart, think how all the trains are always just going back and forth, back and forth.

Capricorn (Dec. 23-Jan. 20): Though our ex-therapist advises us against black and white thinking, the starts sometimes think grey areas are overrated. This week, your favorite things are either this or that: friend or sweetheart, vanilla or kink, sky or ground.

Aquarius (Jan. 21-Feb. 19): This week you may think you feel an urge to submit, but it could simply be a wish to surrender to unabashed affection, to be adored beyond all control, which is what you deserve. Or it could be an urge to submit to literary journals, who knows?

Pisces (Feb. 20-March 20): “If I was an old school, fifty pound boombox, would you hold me on your shoulder, wherever you walk? Would you turn my volume up in front of the cops, and crank it higher every time they told you to stop? And all I ask is that you don't get mad at me when you have to purchase mad D batteries…” (Gym Class Heroes)

Aries (March 21-April 18): Your Halloween costume is decidedly an angel—you are all feathers and harp, all tinsel halo and iridescent glitter. You are sparkling, translucent, eternal, floating like crepe paper blessings, ready for all the candy.


Taurus (April 19-May 18): In David Sedaris’s story, Us and Them, he tells about the time that, as a child, he tried to cram all of his Halloween candy into his mouth at once rather than share it with the weird neighbor children. You are the opposite of that. Share everything, pumpkin, even your mini candy bars, even the Milk Duds.


Gemini (May 19-June 21): To my Gemini brother, who is addicted to road trips: Drive forever, all over the nation. Post pictures of rich vistas and every brightly colored tree. Your sky is a perfect blue, your mountains emphatic, the engine a holy hum.


Cancer (June 22-July 23):  Whatever hurts your heart, press “hide.” Press “unsubscribe.” If it comes down to it, press “unfriend.” You’re making room for something bigger and softer and warmer. Take fear and loss and self-consciousness out of your field of vision. One million points for every day you succeed in not thinking of it.

Leo (July 24-Aug. 23): To my dear wife, who played Scrabble with me at Occupy Philadelphia: I’ll always spell out “love” for you in tiles, four points to your 78 points for “biscuits.” When it comes to you, I have a single clear message, and will be happy to marker it on signs and tape it to the cold walls outside city hall. You are a one woman Occupy My Heart.

Virgo (Aug. 24-Sept. 23): “(Reality is infinitely perfect/ but we are blind, / for we give value/ to things that/ are not ours.)” (Azwan Ismail) The moments where you settle into your skin are the happiest, and they will be most of this week. That little remaining envy means you’re breathing.

Libra (Sept. 24-Oct. 21): See Cancer and do the opposite: Buy nice little presents for the sadness just below the surface. Wrap it in pretty blankets and make it some Tension Tamer tea. That’s what healing is, darling. (The stars are working on it too, we promise.)