Mslexia

Mslexia, the magazine for women who write | www.mslexia.co.uk

New Writing

Afterward, we took Flo to the planetarium:
the three of us reclining under a copper dome,
darkening like the linea nigra of Greenwich.
Doctor Rylance battled asteroids and tongue-tie
as he led our shpace shafari and Flo grinned,

clinging to sleeves and knees. The doppler
landed hard on the atlas of my belly,
roamed the nocturnal pocket we had made.
We hunted Sirius; the bright winking of your heart
and hoped you’d refract back, send galloping news

that you lived. The sonographer turned breach,
a contortionist in her sweaty efforts to probe new life.
She discovered a suffocated astronaut suspended
in space; a dozing night watchman, alien head dipped.
No bipolar flow, no swoosh or suck, just a dust

pillar unpulsing, your clustered limbs extinct.
You’d have been our winter son, we your shepherd
moons watching you explore this blue marble.
Perhaps fifty-six days was enough,
enough to complete you: dwarf planet, new star.

KADDY BENYON, 36, is currently completing an MA in creative writing. She used to write for Hollyoaks and Grange Hill, and published three spin-off Hollyoaks novels. Mother to two young children, she manages about 10 hours a week at her desk in the kitchen while a fat, friendly spider keeps an eye on her from its web. A morning swim – after listening to Bob Dylan – keeps her motivated; poetry, the north Norfolk coast and crème caramel are among her great loves.

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