Lost Home
BEN SANDAY
Universe
I am Odyssey. Space cradles me like
An infinite universal mother
In all directions. Black. Vast. Empty. But
At the edges there are its occupants:
A spherical array of points of light
Settled in an ebony tapestry,
Seeming still but in beautiful motion.
I dream of the suns! Hot as Hell inside,
As cold as Hades out here, they traverse
Their ordered pathways through the universe.
Light
Flaring briefly as they approach the suns,
I dream of comets on their wild orbits.
The distances unimaginable.
Entire galaxies appear as mere points
of light. Giant nebulae of bright gas
and white dust shine blue, red and violet,
If you have eyes to see, mostly wasted
On dead, cold rocks each making its own way
Through this dead, cold environment of space.
This light reveals a silver carapace.
Odyssey
I dream of Odyssey. Its metal hull
Insulates its precious cargo of life,
Takes its own route across the empty gap
Between two solar systems. It’s not meant
To be here. It is intruding where no
Human object has ever been before.
It seems lifeless but inside there is one
Sleeping form, who is suddenly awake.
I dream no more, slide slowly to the floor.
My mind is a fog and my body sore.
Awake
Nerves all feeling at once, I open my
Eyes. Light screams into my brain, a razor
scraping my thoughts. I lie in the shallows
of a beautiful river, the high sun
illuminates my skin but gives no warmth.
I shiver in the slime, my muscles cramp
in the cold. There is no river. I lie
Like a newborn expelled from a warm womb.
Odyssey wakes up and takes me in hand.
Stale air and frost ebb away as I stand.
Others
Odyssey, a tender mother, provides
A special formula though I crave meat.
Mind and body shake like leaves in a wind
Stretching after years in hibernation.
I wash and dress and with vision restored
I check a friend. The screen is blank. Power
Failed. With racing pulse I check another
And another. My heart is in a vise!
Nine crew lie in cold boxes without life.
I shine a light in only one, my wife.
Alone
I switch on one blank screen. A flashing red
Light and warning sound leap out. I check the
Systems shown. Just one small meteorite,
A mere grain of sand, I find has smashed
A critical computer, cutting power
To some parts of Odyssey. The hole repaired
Automatically, but over years
One by one, parts crashed, our cots now coffins.
Nobody to repair the circuits blown
So now I find that I am quite alone.
Time
I stare at the screen, my thoughts now blank. How
Do I continue this mission? We were
To explore the outer system, the first
Of humankind to go this far. We must
Be close. Odyssey scans the stars and tells
Me I’m fifty times further than Pluto
From Earth! I focus on the screen. Insane!
The computers have failed us yet again.
I rub my eyes and see the date at last
A half millennium years have gone past.
Waiting
Everyone and everything I
knew has gone! Go on? Turn back? Live? Or die?
My voice, my image, my thoughts and my soul
Can be sent back in just eleven days
But this flimsy body and ship cannot.
Earth! Here I am. Where are you all?
Earth! Is someone there waiting for my call?
Watching I stare at all that I can see,
Those flecks across the universal dome,
One dot of light is my Sun, my lost home.
Ben Sanday has embarked on his second career starting with a BA and Creative Writing major. He is writing an anthology of short stories to be published in 2025 and has been writing poetry since high school, particularly limericks and sonnets. He isn’t married, has no children and doesn’t live in Hampstead.
