Requiem

Poetry by John Gillespie Jr. Photography by John Gillespie Jr.

I, too, am building a rocket ship Like and unlike Bezos Like and unlike Musk

I, too, am building a rocket ship a rocket ship to the Earth.

After the World has crumbled and the bodies have piled up

and the dead and dying accumulate I, too, am building a rocket ship back to the ground of this Planet.

I, too, am building a rocket ship

where the astronauts can be Trans where the engineers can be Black

where the astrophysics can be Queer where this World may be renounced.

I, too, am building a rocket ship big enough for you and yours mine and more, and everyone

cause I don’t want a rocket ship to nowhere else but here

with you and yours, mine and more, and everyone.

O my body,

forgive me for my sins for I know not what I do.

- a rocketship to earth.

When I die

bury me in a sea of stars I want to rest in the universe

with black holes and dark energies anti-matter and asteroids

I want to spend infinity without gravity in the blackest space we know

between planets and solar systems and when the astronauts and aliens

find my body hidden in the darkness

I want them to leave me lonely in oblivion.

dear self, who I am

who I am not today, i allow you to be

all that you are all that you are not

today, i allow you to be paradox and imperfection experiment and experience

today, i allow you to be someone who isn’t you someone who isn’t me

yet still someone

something somehow.