three

It’s nice to finish a sentence.

For a while today, I wasn’t sure if I was awake. I snapped my fingers, pinched myself,
made sure I knew where I was. Checked the street signs. No use. I felt like I was
watching what I was seeing. I kept walking near the highway, watching the cars. There
was nowhere to sit down. A store was by the highway that only sold different sizes of
metal pipes. People were walking away from the store carrying these big long metal
pipes. I circled back three times to watch people carrying pipes. I like to watch people
and the space they occupy. How they are where they are. The last time I circled, a man
sitting on a stoop said to his phone “hold on” and then told me “don’t look so sad!”
Because I felt like I wasn’t where I was, I watched the pipes. Then I ate pizza.

I can see Mars

I’m pretty sure
it’s Mars

I can see it
a red star

but
a planet

Mars
It’s still there!

For days
not a plane

three days
at least

not moving.
Mars is there.

It’s really
there.

I’ve been
watching it

that red
dot is Mars

for days
it stays.

I hear
other people

talk about it
voices

Definitely
MARS.

My birthday
comes and goes

I care more
than I should

I was overdue
at birth

steam
came off

Will mars
still be there

with its red
glow

in the sky?
That dot.

I must remember
look for mars

on my birthday
Will I see

a red
dot

in the
sky?

What if I’m
the only alien

on the planet?
What if

I’m really
from mars?

The last
Martian

gazing
at my

former planet
missing home

looking
up?

She’s cool

She waves thank you
to the garbage bin