The Lunar Cowgirl

She kicks up nebula dust,
Spangled spurs cutting through the night
The dust don’t settle at the edge of the universe
Sparks catch fire in her flight

She rides with a lasso of Saturn’s rings,
A star-studded belt and sack full of jewels,
A comet tail tangled like silk in her braid
She answers to nobody’s rules

She rides past rivers of silver and starlight,
Where cosmic leviathans stir and splinter
Time and space will bend to her stride
On her long, fateful journey to the center

She rides through wreckage, past dust and decay
The old world crumbles in the wake of her reign
And with hands torn raw from the weight of the reins,
She breaks what the sheriff swore would bind her

She struts into the interstellar rodeo
As the solar winds howl and the stars whisper her name
She tips her cap low like a waxing crescent moon
And stakes her claim in the cosmic hall of fame

Her chrome mare enters the ring, all shimmer and steel,
As she stares down the barrel of her sparkly six shooter
The cosmos bends to her piercing, steady gaze
As she declares, “I can live forever!”

She shoots stars into the night
And the sky splits apart in brilliant wonder
Bringing glitter and glamour to the dusty deserts,
She tears the old firmament asunder

The heavens crack and the stars burn bright
As the lunar cowgirl brings forth a new dawn
It’s the end of an era at the edge of the universe
And all the cowboys hear her celestial song.

Written by Fabienne de Cartier in February 2025 as a commissioned work for International Women’s Day.  It was adapted from a poem she wrote for her mother in 2019.