Kate Young is a semi-retired teacher living in Kent. Her poetry has been published in webzines and chapbooks, also in the anthologies Places of Poetry and Write Out Loud. Kate particularly enjoys responding to Ekphrastic challenges as she loves Art and painting. Her pamphlet A Spark in the Darkness has been published by Hedgehog Press.
Find her on Twitter: @Kateyoung12poet
Planet Zero
Early on we learnt the equation
zero = failure
a red gasp of a mark swallowed
in the hollow gut of defeat
but that has been turned on its head
like living an oxymoron
on a planet no longer sure
of its polar from its plexus.
Seasons tumble in cartwheels
leaves rustle their dissent
as a rogue potentilla bud
pokes its head into autumn
a roar of yellow profanity
cuts across the moonlight
opens its mouth in surprise
a gate-crasher late to the party.
Masters in miscreation
we conjure floods out of dust
arctic fires out of ice
skulls from calcified coral.
The world rotates, gathers pace
its topsy-turvy dance
curled like temptation
on the tip of a tongue
it licks at the permafrost
thaws holes of Swiss cheese
drives polar bears inland
to scavenge for scraps of seal.
Myriads of hungry bins open
their mouths in anticipation
begging to be fed
with the nectar of extinction.
Somewhere a disembodied voice
stutters over airwaves
target: zero waste to landfill
nil nothing none
but now this planet dreams of zero
armies of noughts, pumped
with the sweet semibreve of success.
Earth holds her breath.
Kate Young
Kate’s pamphlet, A Spark in the Darkness, is available to purchase from her publisher, Hedgehog Press. Clink book cover for more info.
Shades of Summer by Kate Young