Tell all the truth but tell it slant— Emily Dickinson
Poor little Hoppers does not wish
for this title, for space is dumb
because space is empty.
Space is sad.
Instead, he dreamt of muggy swamps,
from the tank of an enthusiastic
kindergarten class (gulping
beetles and dragonflies,
diving beneath cattail roots
then basking on lily pads,
joining the trilling chorus
of so many others
just like himself)
until he was flung into orbit when the school exploded after intrepid innovators broke Earth’s core.
Seth Wade is a tech ethicist studying and teaching at Bowling Green State University. You can read his fiction and poetry in publications like Strange Horizons, Hunger Mountain Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, the Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, The Gateway Review, and elsewhere. He’s currently (eternally) working on a novel and (too many) philosophy articles.
Photo by Jack Hamilton on Unsplash
