Astronaut Ice Cream by D.A. Xiaolin Spires
at age twelve
dad took me to
the space museum
i toppled planets
i stacked three feet high
my dad squinted andÂ
pulled his fingers
into a circle and
looked through–
like a captain
eyeing hisÂ
telescopic piece–
“a meter,†he said
before they fell
pluto hitting his
newly-waxed
shoes
when we stopped
at the gift shop
i pointed at theÂ
astronaut ice cream–
when he cameÂ
from the register
i pulled at theÂ
metallic wrapping
it did not
give way–
he pulled out
his swiss army
knife and ran a
cut through itsÂ
crinkling packaging
strawberry-flavored
dry and brittle
it was nothing
like ice cream
on Earth
(except it was
on Earth)
he never imagined
that his curious girl
fifteen years later
would be squeezed
into metal packaging
stubborn andÂ
resisting tearing–
tough and obnoxious
only a laceration
from a passingÂ
micrometeorite
released the
dry and brittle
flesh within
image by the poet
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[…] My poem “astronaut ice cream” is now published in Polu Texni! […]