Sky with Four Suns
The first sun – a time bomb – was sucked
into a black bucket and then –
boom. Its igneous
nodes touched and sparked a blackout for aeons.
The second sun was ferrous,
burnished as a shield,
only coming into focus
when it burned redly through
the blizzards.
The third sun was a blank
placeholder, a luminous ring
empty inside –
a winter-white afterglow
rather than a furnace.
The fourth sun – our sun –
is a yellow light of feeling in
our plastic Holocene. We kick it
with our kharmic footprints
but it is still to yield,
yet even light has a shelf life.
Richard Skinner is a writer working across fiction, life writing, essays, non-fiction and poetry. He has published three novels with Faber & Faber, four books of non-fiction and four books of poetry. His work has been nominated for prizes and is published in eight languages. Richard is Director of the Fiction Programme at Faber Academy. He also runs Vanguard Readings and its publishing arm Vanguard Editions.