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.