Poet-in-residence - Cosmonaut

To know I am in quarantine
and not to be touched,
that the world cannot
taint me; it pains me.

On the other side of the glass
my family waits. I wanted only
to see the world distant, a simple
light in the sky; to see the earth rise.

I had not considered it would feel
like an amputation. Meanings rise
and stream from me like sunsets. Silence
deepens our goodbye. I cannot discern

any last trace of your voice
with all the worlds there are between us

By Heidi Williamson, our poet-in-residence.

This poem was inspired by the Making Life event in May 2008.