2023 Commended - Iona Mandal, 'Planetary Periods of a Human Life'

IONA MANDAL

Commended - 2023 Tower Poetry Competition, 'The Planets'

Planetary Periods of a Human Life

Inspired by The Planets (Gustav Holst)

i. The Winged Messenger

On the sonogram, you are diaphanous,
the way green grapes become grey under glaring light.
Eclipsed but lilting in the amniotic orbit
of this bulbous vessel. Half in flight,
half suspended. Herald of the soon-to-be.

ii. The Bringer of Peace

Beads of saliva glisten on the rim of your mouth,
constellations of their own kind.
Slumbered sighs escaping your lips
as you drift motionlessly between planes of existence.
Perhaps your mind is lightyears away,
but your little body sinks in the concave dip of my arm.

iii. The Bringer of Jollity

Gravity has greeted your legs,
fed you with the daze of unadulterated rapture,
Intoxicated this mind with the electricity of glee
and promises of a life that is worth living.

iv. The Magician

With sleight of hand and the conjuring
of young love, you know now what it is
to be changed by a sorcerer’s wills.
That the first taste of enchantment is always the sweetest.

v. The Bringer of War

Tranquillity has begun to escape you.
Comets flare up in the centre of your irises
as you speak – vengeance clusters in your core:
moonless, mist less, a feigned retreat.
Unassured that your carnage will ever be complete.

vi. The Bringer of Old Age

The second childhood is slower than the first.
Craters only widen, and typhoons lose their breath.
Your seven rings have long succumbed
to the monotony of gyration.

vii. The Mystic: One with the Earth

Tethered once again
to the stardust that rests in your very bones.
What is a planet,
if not the soul, magnified? Revolving in the hapless orbit
of it all.