By Asma Al-Masyabi

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A traveler finds herself stranded on a distant planet, alone.

heaven falls on the far side
of this field, lit by flames
too far and hot to touch. my footsteps
fall heavy, breaking
new grass, blue-tipped, earth bent, scurries
of little creatures screaming the names
of their home. this planet was not meant
for me. tilted axis swinging too quickly, moons
bent toward destruction, sun too red
to last. I am meant to float in darkness, to punctuate
the mystery with numbers of fleeing embers, pit stops
at dwindling galaxies, bareboned and
so often empty.
by the register, a note, sometimes,
stardust-coated words explaining
evacuation. radiation. the way the space
between Everything only grows, just as it
shrinks.
the last face I saw tucked
into the pocket of my suit, Your broken
smile slowly fading from the glow
of the universe. I tell myself this
too, that it will not be so bad to die
alone, a strange air sucking
itself into my lungs. when I reach
the end, I am not yet convinced,
landscape barren, emptiness stretching
into yellow tinted clouds, double orbs
mirroring a dying
light. I force my lungs
shallow,
oxygen tank blinking red, ticking
quietly. I touch broken earth
to my cheek, cover my eyes with limp
wrists, attempting a final rest.
 
they open
to silence, blurring sky falling       slowly
into punctures of light
in the darkness. my lungs heave
to call out their names, forgetting Yours.
instead, sparks swim
into mist,
kaleidoscope
as I sigh into sleep.

Process

This poem was inspired by Katie’s visit to the She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia exhibit at The Morgan Library and Museum. Motivated by the first writer identified by name, Enheduanna, and her poetry, we set out to write poems following the story of a heroine. Although I don’t usually write narrative poems, and definitely not sci-fi poems, the story slowly revealed itself to me as I typed it up.

The poem then went through a series of revisions. I started by converting the poem to more of a prose poem, so that I could read all the lines together and ensure that everything made sense. I then broke it back down into lines and stanzas. With help from Katie, I also tried to ensure that what was happening in the poem was clear to the reader without overloading on detail. At last, it was time to choose a title. I decided to go with a line from the poem that I felt captured the mood of the poem pretty well.