I.
fallen following countless gourds
filled from maddening, leaden pipe
the frenetic fiddle, their outro
a perfect civilization, destroyed
a perfect civilization, began
with a boy, Romulus
sent to end what he began
in a different iteration
the she-wolf’s milk, soured
centuries ago
II.
in the final frontier, (in outer space)
women are as subject, if not more so
to fantastical conquest, to becoming
rescued goods writhing in
zero gravity, tight
pin-wheel hair, I love you
I know
III.
we learned, before Romulus ushered in the Fall on earth,
to act on fantasy is to be naughty, a lust-monger
limbs twisted up in hasty sweat for bonds broken
for a self-indulgent psychological issue, we call it
obsession
it is not polite
IV.
and what of the fantasy who persists in her (inconvenient) humanity?
green-skinned concubine of Eve who cannot leave with the captain,
for she is hideous and this is her weakness her
Achilles heel
forgive me
the skin-tight, neon leather catsuit looks so small from here (on earth)
Oops, I
when we wait,
arms crossed breath baited fingers crossed scalp scratching
when we wait for our fantasy to fall,
we confront the ugliness that is human
the consequence
is that the fantasy pulls the curtain
V.
Dido threw her body on the pyre and Carthage’s devotion was hers
eternal and good
the blonde pop star who crooned in space, who told her astronaut
you shouldn’t have
threw her body on the pyre and our devotion was hers
(shaved her head and wielded the sleek, black umbrella)
eternal and good
the beloved first wife, dead of course
she could die a thousand times and never get off,
insatiable whore of a dead bride
the squares of her afghan maddeningly human
in such a clean, technical space
VI.
the woman astronaut drove on land, haggard
in disguise to confront the other woman astronaut
about their mutual rutting of a man astronaut
soiling herself to save time, she donned a wig
and trench coat, sending herself
on one final mission
to kill the fantasy he had promised them both
VII.
outer space, as land, has its many iterations of Romulus
a satellite, an asteroid, fictional holdings,
an entire system of stars
Romulus, sent to end what he began
skirting the milky way in no measurable time
Kate Jayroe is a bookseller at Powell’s Books and serves on staff with Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Work by Kate appears in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, NANO Fiction, Juked, Hobart and elsewhere.