September’s poetry showcase explores chances. Impact’s poets have come up with a range of poems: from taking a chance and believing in yourself, taking chances in a relationship or reflecting on the lack of a second chance to save the planet.
Chambers of Reflection in the Fiction Section
I am a migratory drifter
with no steady home
or stream of thought.
A charity shop thrifter
of lost stories and tales
about like-minded pilgrims
lost amongst a sea of tomes.
Sometimes it’s easy to be a whisper
struggling to speak above the din.
But your voice is also your keeper
so keep her warm and strong within
a story is only determined
once you gather the courage
and begin.
Esther Kearney
Have a little faith
I’ll be one step closer towards
the next step,
just as long as you’re with me- like once you had said…
to be with me always, stand by and see watch me fly out this harness that they had put me.
But with you, I can never ever feel that way
your vigour, your stance is what helps me to stay:
so strong and so steady, there’s no need to pause
for what I feel to be mine will now always be yours
there’s no time to wait, or even no need
so take a chance on us
to let us succeed.
Olivia Morel
No Second Chance
The lungs of the world are on fire
but life goes on
and we don’t mind
we need our meat
as species after species gets crossed off an extinction bingo
we’re carving up corpses with plastic cutlery
carving up forests to crackle in flames
but life goes on
and we don’t mind
we don’t feel the flames
forget this climate crisis is causing each heatwave
these temperatures unprecedented and unseasonal
but it’s unreasonable to complain
when the sun’s shining
let’s lie on a lounger and roast ourselves instead
only grumbling when infrastructure buckles
trains get cancelled
because our world was not built for this
but life goes on
and we don’t mind
we do our bit
put out the recycling
out of sight, out of mind
the pummelled plastic not reused or reduced
but constantly consumed
then shipped off to other nations, turn their shores to wastelands
turns the seas to polymer plastic
but life goes on
and we don’t mind
we’ll go out shopping instead
for tonnes of cotton in the shape of a sweatshop t-shirt
sweated in once then never worn again
so go buy another, if you spend enough
you might just fill up
the plastic rattle of an empty heart
as the world goes round
and life goes on
children and teens take to the streets in their school uniform
but grown ups who’ve grown up with in a have-it-all world
shake their heads, knowing best, ignoring
any evidence of catastrophe
belittling a teenager sailing the Atlantic
to tell the powers that be
in their aging, male glory
to wake up
smell the smoke
of a world that is dying
in our hands.
Lauren Winson
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Featured image courtesy of Tahira Rowe. Article image 1 courtesy of Lauren Winson. Article image 2 courtesy of Lauren Winson.
