Outer

Like the ninth, I watched from outside looking in
And flung towards you through Neptune’s cobalt.
The seventh, on its side paid little heed
On Saturn’s rings I skate and pick up speed
And shoot past the pregnant pull of Jupiter
To smash through belts of rock and ice
Inward now past Mars – the only red that’s cold
Ignoring home despite its patient worry
Into the reckless heat of Venus I yearn
To knock the first from its perch within your sight

We burnt bright and died fast.

My wayward turned head eclipsed the light
And outward bound my course then took the turn
Past home, I won’t return, I need not hurry
Even if I wanted, there was nothing I could hold
And purpose sheds its skin and precedes vice
My course but one pulse from the quantum arbiter
And without root I am a useless seed
On the wind of space with vagabond lead
Only faster, no hope of halt
Beyond the ninth into oblivion.

– 2020