aries to the east
poetry by Holly McKenna
aries to the east
you are all edges and elbows; wooden
corners, splinter in my fingertip. i
am out of season, collecting yesterdays
like a child with insects, ignorant of
their inevitable escape through cracks
in a stolen shoebox. our existence
is not cosmic. we are not the sum of
stars, let us dream of lighthouses instead:
i will not move my eyes from you, if you
open yours a little wider, let it
guide you, a wavelength, a knowledge, our shared
expanse. allow the night to roll away
the sun, allow the world to sleep. does your
mouth get weary of obscuring your mind?
let yourself live where my splintered fingers rest,
balloons on a ceiling, the innocence
of it draped over your shoulders like an
unkind silk illuminating every
contour. in this, the eleventh month of
opportunity, without a single
step taken and hands left half-empty.
i cannot wish upon cosmic shifts –
some things will never be in our nature.
Holly McKenna
Holly McKenna is a recent law graduate from Glasgow and a fully fledged postgraduate researcher in law. In spite of her non-literary career pursuit, she has always had a keen interest in reading and, latterly, writing poetry in her spare time, particularly love and/or confessional poetry, and has found it very therapeutic. She has been published in a few small literary publications and can be found on social media at @HollyLMcKenna (Twitter) & @morninghol / @holwrites (Instagram)