The internet says an excitable rhythm can be reset
by sleeping next to a calm one.
But I’m in a long-distance relationship, and—
remember your twenties? The way Alicia Keys
drew out the word falling—
that’s what my heart does late at night.
A stranger in Bangalore tracks the monitor.
The Mars Rover is not afraid, I heard the Canadian
astronaut say on air to a small boy.
Because it’s doing what it loves, and that is exploring.
The boy and I have been having trouble sleeping.
The boy had been afraid
that it would break. It would break far away,
and there would be no one to repair it.
The astronaut says I am convinced the Mars Rover
is a happy machine. Do you feel better now?
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 25, Issue 6.
Sarah Green is the author of The Deletions (forthcoming U of Akron, 2025) and Earth Science (421 Atlanta, 2016) and the editor of Welcome to the Neighborhood: An Anthology of American Coexistence.
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