Timing

I’m growing as slowly as             Pangea broke             apart
invisibly, but                                                        Colossally

I won’t be recognisable, save for the
jagged                           edges
of 2 lives that used to fit together.

One day
the world will be a playground to me
and every graze I take
will make it stand still.

Every heartbreak I feel
will cause Entire Nations to mourn.

The tectonic plates of my will
will carry me
through
millennia
alchemy
new elements
extinction
unnamed ages
pages of books
as yet unwritten
groundbreaking revelations
as yet unattained.

But for now,
the mountains are taking their time to be made,
riverbanks take their form as eyelids,
lava runs quietly through my veins,
and deep breaths only bring small storms.

You will all know when I’m ready

 

Eve Atkinson is a queer, south east London based poet and BBC Words First 2022 finalist. She has written for BBC 1Xtra and HouseWarmers, and has had her poetry animated by Jess Mountfield. She has been performing spoken word live since 2017, and creates her own ‘visual poetry’ on her instagram, @eveofpoems.