(1)

 

Talking with strangers

she only realised she was talking with strangers

when she saw her husband’s rocket

get shot down orbiting Mars

 

(2)

 

Nobody thought the terrorists on Venus

could get through their Robot Fleet

until ship after ship fell through the heavens

like apples from a decaying tree.

 

(3)

 

Gazing away from the rings of Saturn

the fall from the hatch into the darkness

felt endless across the pull of space

until the Captain pulled you sharply back

 

(4)

 

Falling towards the Earth from the Moon

the darkness never felt less threatening

as the heat from the atmosphere

tears apart your engine then your boosters.