Robin Gow
AIR BNBS ON THE MOON
tell me this is temporary.
that one day i will wake up
to a bowl of fresh strawberries
& earth will be a head of hair.
i look out the portal
to see the darkness as thick
as grease. stars speaking
their old languages. i used to want
the distance to dance like veils.
used to hold a telephone
to every door. this is the nest
of the oldest hermit. a woman
with five-thousand years
of loneliness. no pictures
on the walls just rings of salt
in every room. a cottage
the size of a thumb. i think maybe
i could purchase her life.
lead my own wandering into hers.
what do i have to do to get
my permanent vanishing?
i’m putting on my suite
to walk in search of a dandelion
for conversation. on the moon
sentences are written by distance.
could we orbit today then?
step forward through dust.
animal shadow. songs of dead species.
all the while, you sit on earth
& maybe drink water
or watch television or
close your eyes for a second too long.
promise me i can have a beautiful life.
give me the oldest ocean
dried for lack of fingers.
a flock of strings plucked
to make an orchestra. i have
one more day here before
i have to become a girl again.
all the clocks say different years.
i take a bath in sunlight.
feel the cottage exhale.
go out one last time to stare
at my own foot prints leading away
into the galaxy’s purple-black.
help, i don’t want to go back
to my stained-glass life.
that one day i will wake up
to a bowl of fresh strawberries
& earth will be a head of hair.
i look out the portal
to see the darkness as thick
as grease. stars speaking
their old languages. i used to want
the distance to dance like veils.
used to hold a telephone
to every door. this is the nest
of the oldest hermit. a woman
with five-thousand years
of loneliness. no pictures
on the walls just rings of salt
in every room. a cottage
the size of a thumb. i think maybe
i could purchase her life.
lead my own wandering into hers.
what do i have to do to get
my permanent vanishing?
i’m putting on my suite
to walk in search of a dandelion
for conversation. on the moon
sentences are written by distance.
could we orbit today then?
step forward through dust.
animal shadow. songs of dead species.
all the while, you sit on earth
& maybe drink water
or watch television or
close your eyes for a second too long.
promise me i can have a beautiful life.
give me the oldest ocean
dried for lack of fingers.
a flock of strings plucked
to make an orchestra. i have
one more day here before
i have to become a girl again.
all the clocks say different years.
i take a bath in sunlight.
feel the cottage exhale.
go out one last time to stare
at my own foot prints leading away
into the galaxy’s purple-black.
help, i don’t want to go back
to my stained-glass life.
--
Robin Gow is a trans poet and young adult author from rural Pennsylvania. They are the author of Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy (Tolsun Books 2020) and the chapbook Honeysuckle (Finishing Line Press 2019). Their first young adult novel, A Million Quiet Revolutions is forthcoming in March 2022 with FSG Books for Young Readers.