Self-portrait

Astronaut

  

Mirror

The images of the boys on the Moon playing not meant to exclude you or me and yet they do this land set off from women

we wanted to go we wanted to go we still want to go

we wanted to go but we made coffee and engineered and watched instead

we flightless birds

and there they are in the old Hasselblad photos playing

when we wanted to play too

the photos the mirrors society will tell us not to think too hard about it or aspire to be astronauts but dream girls dream

look for the astronaut in the mirror

she’s there

Bildungsroman

She is fed
a steady diet
of stars

all her life,

the slow chewing
even on the coldest nights

leading her
to crave
more than just

the flavor on her tongue
of one or two

so that she stands up
at the table
and pushes away her plate

and says

I want to be an astronaut.