Support 110 years of independent journalism.

  1. Culture
10 July 2019

The Landing

By Isobel Dixon

The nuns caught me, hasty one,
pressing to arrive too soon.
There was no time for the drive back home
to Bedford where the older girls were born,
your world. I broke the chain.
And you, a bit, though not alone –
bruised from the loss already borne.
In the gap before, almost, a son.

Later I would imagine them, a ring
of wimpled sisters, as I tumbled in.
My kindly aliens, The Nuns.
Mysterious guardians, like something
out of Madeline. Not knowing then
about the veil that fell across your face –
low winter sun, so little air or light
where you had spiralled to, or from.

Breaking the pattern of your plan,
I was the alien, leaching your strength,
your bones: invisible defeats.
They didn’t know how hollowed out
you were. There’s Daddy, listening
so intently to momentous radio. And you,
in your strangely baggy suit of skin, trying
to work out how to lift your feet again.

As mankind makes its giant leap,
an exhausted woman aches for sleep,
some respite from this thirsty one –
they cut the cord but still she latches on.
I can see you then, running out of milk
and oxygen, every living thread worn thin;
but we’re lashed for life, across deep space
together. The sometimes-choking tethering.

We mean no harm. Harm comes of us.
Mere existence tramples as the signals
surge and fade, receding tides of chemicals.
And then we’re left, outside ourselves
and shells, your battery dead. A long way
back then from our landing, heavy-visored,
clumsy-gloved, in dust and outstretched shadow,
left wandering bewildered on our nether moon.

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday - from the New Statesman. The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates.
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU

Isobel Dixon’s collection A Fold in the Map is published by Nine Arches, which will also publish her next collection, The Landing, in 2021.

Content from our partners
How are new rail networks boosting the economy?
Setting the stage for action on climate finance
Drowning in legacy tech: the move to sustainable computing – with Chrome Enterprise

This article appears in the 10 Jul 2019 issue of the New Statesman, The state we’re in