Winner: Philippa Musgrave-Asher, ‘Constellation’
Philippa Musgrave-Asher’s poem ‘Constellation’ is the recipient of a 2020 Newcastle Poetry Competition Young People’s Prize.
Constellation
Strung from the blank side of the moon,
Tipped wings brush craters,
Mouth open ready to swallow oblivion whole,
Her white cinders mellow against the cosmos.
Tipped wings brush craters,
Pulling against Orion’s bow,
Her white cinders mellow against the cosmos,
Dwarfed by luminous scree.
Pulling against Orion’s bow,
Flung into the heat of quarrelling universes,
Dwarfed by luminous scree,
Her mind drifts between fire and ice.
Tender hands cup reality,
Mouth open ready to swallow oblivion whole,
The viscous night succumbs to amnesia,
Strung from the blank side of the moon.
Philippa Musgrave-Asher, 17