I say when we play Crash
Bandicoot. The fruit slipped
in between two impossible jumps
And how many things do we do
anyways no matter the cost--
remember that the search for the
stars sent a dog to space, with no
intent on bringing her home
How the shuttle that held her
body disintegrated as it re-entered
the Earth’s orbit? How the dust
of Laika must have fallen
into the ocean
and she might still be in the rain
that falls on cities, helps
rivers to rage, and peach trees
to grow
And that cost was so high, so easy
to not have done, the information
not enough for a life
That wasn’t a risk,
but a negotiation of what
a soul might cost
But this is about risk
This jump is a risk
saying I love you is a risk
like the stars are a risk
like anything is a risk
when it feels far away
But, once I had a peach, when I was
hot and thirsty, from a tree bent
back with age, and it was so sweet
so full of sun that it made
me imagine myself a life
I’d want to keep making
And that, too, is a kind
of impossible
jump
Bandicoot. The fruit slipped
in between two impossible jumps
And how many things do we do
anyways no matter the cost--
remember that the search for the
stars sent a dog to space, with no
intent on bringing her home
How the shuttle that held her
body disintegrated as it re-entered
the Earth’s orbit? How the dust
of Laika must have fallen
into the ocean
and she might still be in the rain
that falls on cities, helps
rivers to rage, and peach trees
to grow
And that cost was so high, so easy
to not have done, the information
not enough for a life
That wasn’t a risk,
but a negotiation of what
a soul might cost
But this is about risk
This jump is a risk
saying I love you is a risk
like the stars are a risk
like anything is a risk
when it feels far away
But, once I had a peach, when I was
hot and thirsty, from a tree bent
back with age, and it was so sweet
so full of sun that it made
me imagine myself a life
I’d want to keep making
And that, too, is a kind
of impossible
jump
Chloe N. Clark is the author of Collective Gravities, Your Strange Fortune, Under My Tongue, The Science of Unvanishing Objects, and the forthcoming Escaping the Body. She is co-EIC of Cotton Xenomorph and can be found on Twitter @PintsNCupcakes.