Berfrois

The Starship: X

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by Sarah Blake. Illustrated by Danielle Susi.

Did you have to kill aliens to take
over this planet? you ask. He laughs.
No. We picked a young planet.
There’s a lot of life in the water, but
it hasn’t evolved yet. We’re excited to see
how it will. Eventually. I mean, we won’t
see it. I can’t imagine. But someone
will, if we do well in populating
and sustaining this planet. And they’ll
keep a record. And someday you’ll
be able to watch the evolution of a new
being like a stop-motion movie.

*

You get a job at the Space Museum.
You’ve always loved museums
but they were too familiar on Earth.
You couldn’t imagine working among
the same information, the same pieces
day after day. But here you know next
to nothing. And the museum is huge.
Whole wings are like art museums,
dedicated to the art of different worlds.
It’s the most magnificent place
you’ve ever seen. It alone could
convince you to leave Earth again.

*

One day you finally ask,
Why did you bring us here?
And he answers plainly,
There aren’t enough of us.
He keeps eating dinner.
That’s it? And after he
swallows, Yes. We have
this perfect society, finally,
but not enough people for it
to flourish. And there are
always dying planets.

*

Why is it perfect? Where are
the power hungry? The people
who feel they aren’t getting
what they deserve and
lashing out? How? How
is that possible? Your lover
starts trying to explain,
but you can’t stop yourself.
Why would you risk
all that coming back
by bringing us here?

*

I guess we’re still arrogant.
And just the slightest humor
eases you and the tremendous
pressure in your chest
at the thought of a world
contaminated by everything
that terrified you, every
reason you wanted to raise
a child in a new world
if given the chance.

*

So you marry this man
after three years. Maybe
because he’s the one,
maybe because you’re
tired of feeling like
your life is halted,
as if this giant stone
beast is blocking the way,
holding up his hand.
You’ve been breaking
your nose on that hand
for years, so to speak.

*

Maybe that’s why you haven’t
felt beautiful in all that time.
But that doesn’t stop you
from getting pregnant.
You’re pregnant for so many
days because days are shorter
here, if only slightly. It’s a long,
lonely time when you can’t
feel lonely because you are
always together. And so
somehow it’s also joyful.

*

The doctors marvel at you,
all your old-human complaints,
like the swelling in your hands
that you can hardly see but
has you wearing braces
at night. They bring up old
textbooks to read about
the pregnancy you’d imagined.
The hospital bed, the IV,
the monitors around the belly.
They don’t have the old tech,
but they’ll do what they can.

*

You have a baby girl.
She’s healthy.
She breastfeeds well.
You don’t. You bleed
and already
feel like giving up.
A nurse says, Two weeks.
At the two week check up,
you won’t have any
complaints. It won’t hurt.

*

Your neighbor has a daughter
about the same age. You
spend afternoons with his wife,
the two babies lying near
each other on the floor. Both
of you shaking toys over
their sweet faces. Or they sleep
and you two talk. But when
she asks about your neighbor’s
first wife, you say you don’t
remember her anymore.

“The Starship” is a book-length poem which will be published in illustrated installments on weekdays from September 15 to September 30, 2015.


About the Author:

Sarah Blake is the author of Mr. West, an unauthorized lyric biography of Kanye West, out with Wesleyan University Press.

About the Artist:

Danielle Susi is the author of the chapbook The Month in Which We Are Born (dancing girl press, 2015). She is a columnist for Entropy, the co-editor of HOUND, and the Programming and Media Coordinator for the Poetry Center of Chicago. Her writing has appeared in Knee-Jerk Magazine, Hobart, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She received her MFA in writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Newcity has named her among the Top 5 Emerging Chicago Poets. Find her online at daniellesusi.com