Mars – Fiona Cartwright

Mars

We walk on water-swelled soil
studded with earthstars, skins

pierced by rain, spores already erupted,
and I tell my mother

Now is the closest Mars will be until 2035
and she says

This Halloween moon’s a blue one.
The sky’s been deleted

by the sun, so when dark comes
I try to remember to look

for Mars’ orange seed briefly fruited
into a tangerine, clinging close

to a mistletoe ball of a moon
and I try, and fail to remember

the feel of my mother’s
small bent body in my arms.

…

Fiona Cartwright (Twitter @sciencegirl73) is a poet and conservation scientist. Her poems have appeared in various magazines, including Magma, Mslexia, Under the Radar, Interpreter’s House and Atrium. Her debut pamphlet, Whalelight, was published by Dempsey and Windle in 2019 (Fiona Cartwright).