Cathy Bolton
What I Did in the School Holidays
Week two: I went to the moon.
My Dad, a cleaner for the Star Ship Enterprise,
sneaked me on board. I hid in a broom cupboard:
twelve days with nothing to eat
but a tin of Spam and packets of Smash.
Soon as we touched base, I was out of there.
The others took yonks, putting on suits
made from sewn together milk bottle tops
and plastic bubble masks. I don't know why,
the air was deliciously fresh,
smelt of Fairy Liquid: the Americans lied.
The surface of the moon was covered in slime,
the colour of green ice-pops; slippery as soap.
I climbed a small hill, planted my signed photo
of Donny in a grove of Popes and stubbed candles.
The crew played five-a-side; tried to fool gravity
with a water filled johnny. It was a no score draw.
Coming back, Captain Kirk had a panic attack
so, I read the map while Dad drove us home.
My Dad, a cleaner for the Star Ship Enterprise,
sneaked me on board. I hid in a broom cupboard:
twelve days with nothing to eat
but a tin of Spam and packets of Smash.
Soon as we touched base, I was out of there.
The others took yonks, putting on suits
made from sewn together milk bottle tops
and plastic bubble masks. I don't know why,
the air was deliciously fresh,
smelt of Fairy Liquid: the Americans lied.
The surface of the moon was covered in slime,
the colour of green ice-pops; slippery as soap.
I climbed a small hill, planted my signed photo
of Donny in a grove of Popes and stubbed candles.
The crew played five-a-side; tried to fool gravity
with a water filled johnny. It was a no score draw.
Coming back, Captain Kirk had a panic attack
so, I read the map while Dad drove us home.
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The