(Silvia, August, Exeter)
I watched you look for fragments
of your world
there’s a Romanian
story
about a prince
who goes off chasing
eternal youth and
everlasting life
He returns home
to find
valleys and cities
where forests used to
be
in the palace the
lights are out.
At the Double Locks
Instagram poets
carry picnic blankets
under one arm,
articulate girls
abandon their bikes
in the parking lot
We eat scotch eggs
in ritual remembrance
of student penury
and later, on the way
home
I lock on Venus
to scale down the human
distances
we’ve travelled
to something insignificant
like a chicken coop
Give me one fixed
point
and I’ll be brave
enough
to let the sky bleed
again tonight
every night
for the next
38 years
