2023 Commended - Eloise Davis, 'Mars'

ELIOSE DAVIS

Commended - 2023 Tower Poetry Competition, 'The Planets'

 

Mars

Here you come, man —

Liftoff,

sheathed in a towering

ship of the light and the lyre:

A contraption of plastic and metal

that punctures the sky.

 

You watch as a comet tears by,

a glimmer

of ice, flint,

stone splinters,

trailing streaks like the simmering dawn,

Splitting darkness with fire.

 

I know you, man —

You’re the one with the button-up coat

and the car,

with your whiff of entitlement,

Eau de Cigar,

starched paper,

caviar,

drawl thickened with oil and tar.

When you gaze on the stars there are nettles

that glint in your eye.

 

You’ll never be settled,

Unsatiated.

You have to go

Where No Man Has Gone Before.

You want me

populated.

 

So here you come, man —

Pointing your paper-plane ships

at the bringer of war.