Space
Two astronauts take off into space and not a single person notices the earth contract as they do so.
They are birthed free from terra firma and propel themselves into orbit and perhaps mother nature is too tired to strain now so the umbilicus is cut by millions of gallons of fuel exploding beneath their feet; a sole kicking out at several hundred miles an hour.
Here they go, about as gone as dead, but with less of the permanence and definitely more ceremony, really going out with a bang.
Their rocket breaks through the amniotic surface of the ozone and empts a global guttural groan at the expulsion-
Not kicking or screaming, quite the opposite, a dreadful silence, an expanse that has never known the gush of an inhale,
and two throbbing pulses
wet with too much blood.
Scarlett Ward Bennett is a Midlands poet, working from Staffordshire. She is a Writing Assistant for Writing West Midlands, and her debut collection “Ache” was published by Verve Press in 2019. In the same year she was nominated for Best Spoken Word Performer by Saboteur Awards.