2 poems – Philippa Bowe

Stardust

when I wake / next to you / us both / tangled in sticky bed warmth / until you get up / and the bed cools too fast / but you leave me your stardust / scattered from your beloved flesh / scattered across wrinkled cotton / I roll my limbs in it / till it clothes the nakedness of your absence / stardust gathered up light years away / from us, before us / brushing past moons of strange planets / landing here / a gracious offering to me / glowing me in zodiacal light / sometimes a little gritty, yes / but oh so warm and beautiful / you

Litany

I want the rain to stop

I want to be womb-safe in the belly of a kind, slow-moving whale

I want the three hearts of an octopus

I want a green sun in the sky

I want

to hang my skin out to dry, pores steaming soundlessly

to muffle the saturating, ear-stabbing howl out there

to pump my blood so hard it tidal-waves to touch the outer edges of the universe

to see the ocean endlessly stained and fall through darkly emerald depths

I want

I want the rain to stop