Naked

Nicholas Hogg

We pull back the curtain

and fuck. Skin

and stars, photon

suits of dying sun,

cut to the bone

by space and light,

the cosmic

void. We touch in protest

at the cold,

at the universe

death

when it all comes apart.

Cooling on the bed

we face the glow,

the Big Bang

debris. The heat

we made in flesh,

the heat

we stole

from time.

NICHOLAS HOGG is the author of A Sacrifice, now a Ridley Scott film starring Eric Bana and Stranger Things' Sadie Sink. In 2021 he won the Gregory O'Donoghue Poetry Prize, and in 2023 the Liverpool Poetry Prize. His debut collection, Missing Person, is out now. www.nicholashogg.com @nicholas_hogg