Voyager from Shortwave Eights by WVMA

Voyager

i – Heliosphere

Ear pressed to cardboard and aramid;
fine dialling the warm bakelite, hoping
to hear your chattering on foam lined
headphones and shortwave eights.

Competing with the numbers stations,
their cool cold war intonations at odds
with the promise of your static blasts.
Thrown from the world with a box

of memories, arms flailing against the
sunglare, silent screaming past a parade
of ghost-dancing gods but taking time
for an itinerant do-si-do, you persevere.

ii – Kuiper Belt

Once filled with other worlds, this room,
now barren, unkind, dressed only
in a thin pane of sun-glass, that splits
the air between me and the world.

A crumpled sleeping bag, waiting
to be zipped and rolled; bundled
into the back of a battered Fiat. But
luck’s not on my side and the long

meadow recedes, the cobalt skies
above reduced to a pale blue dot
in the rear-view mirror. We fall
into quagmire night but persevere.

iii – Oort Cloud

Head to the power window, in petulant
silence, scouring the pointilliste zoo,
I see two bears that light the way but no
trace of you among the dervish conclave.

Hidden by distance and motorway light,
charging into unknown territory, I scoop
the condensation from the glass and touch
the space between the dragon and the woman

in chains. A small encouragement. Our heads
in the clouds, moved by forces beyond
us, to unseen destinations – I never knew
if we were falling or flying, but we persevered

• Spoken Word
• ambient
• eclectic
• indie
• poetry
• Southampton