I've Arrived
My ship lands,
makes fault line
of a crystal patch,
a thread of silver.
I’m the first earthling,
the negative,
the explorer,
the cleaver.
I trail a dark-eyed narwin
from unnamed lake
to uncharted mountain range,
and lonesome deserts,
bordered by worlds of shale.
I kneel, take samples.
A shimmer like gold
is sucked from the planet’s shell.
I am the first of many,
the spreading fungus of curiosity
On a spiky branch above,
a red-feathered gwolup
warbles a death rattle,
its, not mine.
.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in That, Midwest Quarterly, Poetry East and North Dakota Quarterly with work upcoming in South Florida Poetry Journal, Hawaii Review and the
Dunes Review.