{"id":2909,"date":"2021-05-27T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T08:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/?p=2909"},"modified":"2021-05-26T20:27:27","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T19:27:27","slug":"floating-in-the-clouds-of-venus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/floating-in-the-clouds-of-venus\/","title":{"rendered":"Floating in the clouds of Venus<\/span>Lee Nash<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Floating in the clouds of Venus\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tie me to a met balloon<\/span><\/p>\n

and let me drift in Venus\u2019 atmosphere,<\/span><\/p>\n

that planet masquerading as a star.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Suit me up so her sulphuric acid<\/span><\/p>\n

won\u2019t sear my lungs, turn my sugars<\/span><\/p>\n

into dirty carbon sludge; give me<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

a microscope, so I can scan for phosphine,<\/span><\/p>\n

for armoured molecules dancing<\/span><\/p>\n

in these carbon dioxide skies.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t drop me; up here it\u2019s balmy,<\/span><\/p>\n

down there it\u2019s ocean-bottom pressure<\/span><\/p>\n

and pizza-oven hot, a billion times<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

as acid as their earthly cousins\u2019 dens.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I\u2019ve discovered what their shells<\/span><\/p>\n

are made from, I\u2019ll send back word<\/span> \u2013<\/span> you<\/span>\u2019ll need<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to start production lines asap,<\/span><\/p>\n

to reproduce these little heroes\u2019 helmets<\/span><\/p>\n

so you can stay at home.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The contrarian<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If the climate deniers are right<\/span><\/p>\n

and it<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s all a trivial matter of semantics<\/span><\/p>\n

(I<\/span>\u2019<\/span>m playing devil<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s advocate),<\/span><\/p>\n

let<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s just go home. Leave a few romantics<\/span><\/p>\n

to their hopeful protests. Light a new fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Agbogbloshie, they<\/span>\u2019<\/span>re doing just that:<\/span><\/p>\n

burning the plastic off of copper wire.<\/span><\/p>\n

It<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s got nothing to do with the climate, that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides, it<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s not <\/span>my<\/span><\/i> wire that<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s burning,<\/span><\/p>\n

not <\/span>my<\/span><\/i> appliance plugged into the grid,<\/span><\/p>\n

not <\/span>my<\/span><\/i> government that<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s not for turning.<\/span><\/p>\n

It<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s not <\/span>my<\/span><\/i> chart, <\/span>my<\/span><\/i> takeover bid.<\/span><\/p>\n

I simply cannot see these things connected.<\/span><\/p>\n

If I did, I<\/span> woul<\/span><\/i>d<\/span><\/i> be disaffected.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lee Nash\u00a0writes poetry and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in diverse journals and anthologies, including Acorn<\/em>, Ambit<\/em>, Angle<\/em>, Magma<\/em>, Mezzo Cammin<\/em>, Slice<\/em>, Southword<\/em>, and \u201cThe Best Small Fictions 2019.\u201d Her first poetry chapbook, \u201cAsh Keys,\u201d was published by Flutter Press. She was a 2018 Bath Flash Fiction Award prizewinner, a joint winner of the 2019 Princemere Poetry Prize, and is First Prize winner in Fish Publishing\u2019s 2020 The Lockdown Prize (haiku and senryu category).<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Floating in the clouds of Venus\u00a0   Tie me to a met balloon and let me drift in Venus\u2019 atmosphere, that planet masquerading as a star.   Suit me up so her sulphuric acid won\u2019t sear my lungs, turn my sugars into dirty carbon sludge; give me   a microscope, so I can scan […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from Floating in the clouds of Venus<\/span>Lee Nash<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[437,183,185,50,208],"yoast_head":"\nFloating in the clouds of Venus - Writers Rebel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/floating-in-the-clouds-of-venus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Floating in the clouds of Venus - Writers Rebel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Floating in the clouds of Venus\u00a0   Tie me to a met balloon and let me drift in Venus\u2019 atmosphere, that planet masquerading as a star.   Suit me up so her sulphuric acid won\u2019t sear my lungs, turn my sugars into dirty carbon sludge; give me   a microscope, so I can scan [...]Read More... from Floating in the clouds of VenusLee Nash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/floating-in-the-clouds-of-venus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Writers Rebel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/writersrebel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-27T08:00:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-26T19:27:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/nashleecontact-01-289x300-1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"289\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura Toms\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@XrRebel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@XrRebel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Toms\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/floating-in-the-clouds-of-venus\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/floating-in-the-clouds-of-venus\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Laura Toms\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0727754bb6f7f07ed7875c69123a88ca\"},\"headline\":\"Floating in the clouds of VenusLee Nash\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-27T08:00:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-26T19:27:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/floating-in-the-clouds-of-venus\/\"},\"wordCount\":328,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"climate deniers\",\"Eco-Anxiety\",\"eco-poetry\",\"ecofiction\",\"Lee Nash\"],\"articleSection\":[\"read\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/floating-in-the-clouds-of-venus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/floating-in-the-clouds-of-venus\/\",\"name\":\"Floating in the clouds of Venus - 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