Their high mass tears at
pierces a pale sky
pulls at the high oranges
stealing it for their icy peaks.
As the mother planet rises,
methane snows glint
like golden crowns.
Copyright © 2019 Kim Whysall-Hammond
‘Mountains of the Moon’ was first published by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Associations print journal Star*Line, October 2019
Unimaginably ancient, preserving moments in time;
billion year old pebbles from unknown floods
bones fallen into an ancient abyss
ten thousand year old footprints along an English estuary.
Sitting on a rock, you touch time.
Rocks move. They melt and set, erode to dust
and then the dust settles
forms new rock over time almost unimaginable.
This undulating plain formed at great depths
was thrust up to mountainous heights
now lies placid for your walking comfort.
Go find a rock
and travel in time and space.
Copyright © 2018 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Lifting over the horizon comes Orion
stellar giant writ large in the sky
seven winter stars, guiding me on dark nights
heavenly shepard
Rigel, bluebright, ten millions year young
living fast and furious
there at the giants front knee
pushing forward
Great Betelguese smolders
into dying at Orions shoulder
or maybe she’s blown away already
a light six centuries away
Hanging from a three star belt
stars are birthed swaddled in glowing nebulosity
look closely and you see their pinprick natal shine
count them and argue about it
Copyright © 2020 Kim Whysall-Hammond
No storm ever played across your surface
No rain ever fell
Dust lays where water would otherwise
No fish here can dwell
Misnamed lunar ‘ocean’
That two men have bounced around
The child of massive impact
Lava flooded ground
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Re-blogged from 2016
Darkness born from darkness
the beginning of all understanding
Tao te Ching, John H. McDonald, trans.
On an night when all possibilities seem open
when hills and towns and roads
dance and roll in my headlights
I muse on the dance of Higgs Bosons
across seeming emptinesses
matter forming and reforming
in deep space and time
in the most primeval dark
Copyright © 2020 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Sweet sisters Pleiades
Peer out from their nursery nebula
New baby stars
Half the age of the chalk hills
I live upon
Copyright © 2020 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Numbers tumbling quasi-random
Stream past
Rippling through reality
Irrational to the end
Copyright © 2020 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Wetware software hardware
how hard do we have to be?
Programmed by the stochastic chatter of evolution
form fitting function,
almost.
Self replicating semi-autonomous robots.
purposed by deoxyribonucleic acid,
the software exists to
protect itself
not us.
Copyright © 2019 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Granite moon
Grey and old
Silent sentinel
Forever cold
Spinning orbit
Spiralling away
Shining ghostlike
At break of day
Copyright © 2019 Kim Whysall-Hammond
In the middle of the bright Atlantic
Floating on the swell between island volcanoes
Beneath reflective surface tension
Silvered gas bubbles catch the light
And, across the issuing rift
A long snake of data cable
Broken sheared twisted
As the gas breaks the surface
We hear voices
Blogs bubbling to the top
Instructions to buy or sell
A thousand tiny voices
Sparkling in the sunshine
Several parrot fish swim by
Next day when snorkeling
I fancy I hear fish blogging
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
This poem was published by the wonderful Helen Ivory on Ink, Sweat and Tears: http://www.inksweatandtears.co.uk/pages/?p=12491
