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December 8, 2022

Home Sick

Alejandro Lucero

A meteor is finally ending life on earth as we know it

I stand side by side,

next to the profile of a dead woman—

we begin walking together

through a silent forest—

she is the angel welcoming me home.

Did the last seconds of my life end in a stampede: hoofs

of elephants, zebras, and giraffes

crushing my trachea? A dog’s bite at my windpipe?

I lay half gone on the permafrost path

next to the crying fog—

ash fall from the sky—

contrails left by Flight 187—

eraser marks on a blackboard.

My brain it is a germ ridden peach—

A wad of gum stuck on a park bench

which no one sits—

for it is under a dead, fall tree— 

tangled veins under my skin rooting it to the earth.

I think of the greek god nike laughing

at my weak body—spider eggs hatch

reincarnated souls—a stork takes an unborn child

home—take me home.

I miss my home.