by Amanda McLeod
there are preparations at the bottom of the universe
on the anniversary of my second arrest, we watch Star Trek,
hold hands. the curtains pulled tight, you indulge me
some different sky. i am tired of this one & its witness,
the knees & the naming hurt but when she screamed
i thought, of all the infinite galactic possibilities
we created cops. fermi’s paradox says something must
be out there & they aren’t here, could it be someone
saw such forced offerings to men-thought-gods, their breath
gone quick, the heady beat of bodies, said: not these. the cruelty
too vast. blood on the pavement, those on the sidewalk
with their cameras & their two hands, no grit but that under
our fingernails, i didn’t want to be watched. i am undone
in the legacy, the whips & hoses, the drones, Picard knew,
with the first link, the chain is forged, the chain is as long
as sorrow & we are far from the first, did the first beings
of starlight & silicon to look down, look away? is it possible:
the cosmos doesn’t want us, does that make them better
than us or the same, this is not a question. i am not asking
for saviors, i am just saying we are all of us implicated & solidarity
with corpses is an exercise in decay. i read once that Vulcans say
harm hastens the heat death of the universe & what can we do
but when you hugged me outside of the jail that night under cassiopeia,
also called náhookòs bi’áád, called pituaq, llys dôn, i remembered
we have always looked to the stars, hoping. planning.
Em Roth (they) is an educator and organizer in Boston. They believe in the promise of liberation and are enamored with the way that goats look in the sunset. If you are moved in any way by their work, they encourage you to donate to https://gazafunds.com/. Their poetry has been previously published by beestung, BRAWL Lit, and the B’K.
Amanda McLeod is an Australian creative who can’t quite believe this is the world she’s living in.