Patricia Sykes
at home with
only Earth language
in his tongue
though his astronaut gravity
would rather talk Mars
206 million ks at perihelion!
(mantra, mantra!)
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
updrafts of wishful,
purpose, dearth,
light-years speeding past
+ — + — + — + — + — + — + —
while lifespan dwindles in pursuit
⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫ ⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫ ⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫⟫
flight of the im/possible
his childhood porthole tree
soaring in remembered
deciduous height
⥣ ⥣ ⥣ ⥣ ⥣ ⥣ ⥣ ⥣ ⥣ ⥣ ⥣ ⥣
his permanently fleshed limbs
too much an anchor
O Mars, red torment,
beloved orbital
free of junked Earth!
O
O O
O
waking, sleeping, incessantly
oh yeah!
Patricia Sykes is a poet and librettist. Her collaborations with composer Liza Lim have been performed in Australia, the UK, Germany, Moscow, Paris and New York. Her most recent collection is Among the Gone of It, English/Chinese, Flying Island Books, 2017. A song cycle based on her collection The Abbotsord Mysteries premiered in May 2019.