by Nina Staderman
in your dreams I explode off
the tops of rockets, detonate
like a falling star. I've always
wanted to fill your sky and
cover your ground. but my corpse
is just the comet shooting over
your distant horizon. when
I'm out of sight, call me
search & rescue. although your
hands shake and the voice
doesn't make it through the
phone. although I'm most
probably dead. I might be on
the roof
and you can't look away. somewhere
there my body, on fire, lights up a
clearing. it's the somewhere-ness
about it which seems so haunting.
because in your dreams I am
everywhere. call me search & rescue
although I've always been dead. it's
the sort of thing you keep alive by
thinking of it. you think of me in
pieces. tell them that
I'm on the roof...
Nina Stadermann is a Bay Area-based junior. She is a strong believer in experimental, abstract writing, and draws inspiration from mid-20th-century satirists and Contemporary novelists. She works as a comic artist, graphic designer, and staff writer for her school's newspaper. Nina's talents include opening oranges in a single peel and thinking too hard. She plays cello for volunteer orchestras in her free time.