Almanac Poetry: ‘Only Planets Remain’ by Tommy Mallet

 

 

Only Planets Remain

 

 

Dawn doesn’t raise an eyebrow

as I climb into my ute,

after another night of hiding in drink,

killing time.

 

The stars have already gone.

Only planets remain.

 

I notice my dog, on the tray, watching a horse,

that, on this awkward angle,

seems to have no owner.

 

It looks superb,

free,

strolling along bitumen,

past houses and their rigid shoebox angles,

their well-planned trees and lawns,

their neat rows.

 

The rider then rises into view.

 

In this gap between night and day,

when the world shifts

and lives are still,

all roads were built for her.

 

If I’m morning’s breath, haggard and stale,

she is the unspoken,

her and her love,

shifting through the sleeping,

unseen.

 

I watch and watch, insanely jealous while she fades,

and watch more, for the longest time,

as still as

this cardboard world she leaves behind.

 

 

Tommy Mallet

 

 

 

More poetry from Tommy Mallet HERE

 

 

More poetry from Almanac Poetry can be read HERE

 

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