Saturn Stamps
Emma Roper-Evans & India Roper-Evans
Mars winks
Dull orange
Fraught
Promising violence as
Saturn rages up above
Stamping his feet
Drumming against
Peaks and castles
Venting his spleen
In horizontal rain
Tearing his thick hair
Howling through the murk
Rods of lightening
Plummet into jets
Sending electric trickles
Over sodden landscapes
Silver, Tangerine, Jade
Shimmer under
Contradictory skies
Blinking blue and balmy
Through wafts of gunmetal
Holding all inhabitants to account
The town goes dark
As the sky gets light
Saturn has switched
The world off
Whilst containing his ire.
Ghosts of clouds float by
Insubstantial, eerie
Half cast dreams
A white dog wanders
Round the derelict factory
Regardless of shards
Smashed windows hit by
Stormy gods
Shaggy and surefooted
He stands beneath ancient graffiti
Waiting for the tempest to move over
But it goes on falling
Drip, smack, smatter
No contest
Weather wins
No arms can hold back rain
Mouths unable to swallow seas
Heat fells us all
Outfoxed by climate
We can only stand patiently
As the white dog
Lingering for the results of
Our lunacy to drift elsewhere
Hoping to feel dry once more
Swallows plunge dangerously
Tasting sweet pool water where
Artists lazily swim
Turquoise bodies in
Cool liquid flowing
Dreaming of grants and space
To work with
Whilst
Half built houses
Unkempt, discarded
Layers of concrete
Crowns of rust
Static delinquents
Taking up space for zero
Memento mori to
Folly
Slatey cats vanish into walls
Camouflaged witches
Purring spells as they fade to
Grey
Miniature dogs bark with abandon
Tiny tails wagging
Guarding sturdy gates using
Keen titchy teeth
Locals stare unashamedly
Goggling out of car windows
Amazed by fence playing
Aliens
Filling the valley with
Bright sound
Countering rain
Saturn’s swagger
With
Notes traced on railings
Coaxed out of trees
Earthly answers to
Storm
Ringing in air
Soaking into ground
Aural blanket for
Disgruntled gods
Who sleep
Soundly now
Wrapped in
Found
Sound
Atina Art Residency work 2018. Place: the old Atina paper factory.
Emma Roper-Evans is online at edrestories.com. India Roper-Evans is online at indiaroperevans.com.
