Coffin / Cradle
It is both coffin and cradle
this miniature world hurled
from one star to another.
So many generations wasted
in a windowless voyage
without sunrise or sunset.
Their breath, bones, blood
spent, harvested, recycled
for the dogma of the dead.
Lives lived within limits
in balance, in service
to prophesied planetfall.
Reaching out to each other,
mapping the contours of need,
giving and receiving grace.
Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty years. She is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association and a three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers' Award and the Rhysling Award. Her latest books are from opposite shores of the poetry ocean: How to Navigate Our Universe, containing how-to astronomy poems, and The Sign of the Dragon, epic fantasy with Chinese elements, winner of the Elgin Award. Website: marysoonlee.com.
