people will throw away birthday cards

people will throw away birthday cards
and nearly all of the time it will have everything
to do with the stars playing tennis on the night
you began wearing matching lips
with the special people.

you can blame a lot on the way cars are parked,
or children are given names, or you can accept
that most of life is milk before it gets pasteurised.

how you feel about a thing does not stop
it happening, just like how the universe
will expand whether you are scared or not.

time makes vast amounts of blood vacuum
itself back under skin but space is timeless.

everything is always happening, the toast pops
out of the toaster and your daughter is born
but your own atoms are only an afterthought.

the death of a star in the skies isn’t cause
for sadness like it is down here, the universe
keeps going, no tears, just birthday cards.

Memoona Zahid is a final year English with Creative Writing student here at Goldsmiths, and a joy to bump into at uni/the pub/poetry readings. I have been dying to read her poetry for months so I’m delighted that she’s sharing this one with GoldDust (and I’m definitely not going to pretend that I haven’t returned to it over and over on my phone for the last couple of weeks. Because I have.) Keep an eye out for this tiny legend, she is destined for great starry things. Keep up with her on Twitter, @memoonawrites.