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Writer's pictureWallace Truesdale II

I Should’ve Been an Astronaut

Updated: Sep 28



Looking back, I should’ve been 

an astronaut: brave, weightless 

yet still attached to the ground, 

the balance that would answer 

all the Earth lessons I’m learning.


Above all else, astronauts 

reached the sky’s kindest soul, 

did more than look at the Moon. 

They didn’t do it on their own, but 

no one else crossed the distance.


They have the joy of being 

surrounded by expanding nothingness 

while being able to kiss their fingers 

to their palms and see the Earth 

fit into a small hole. They can hold


Everything. I don’t have many things 

to hold and it still all spills between 

my fingers like shattered space rocks, 

dying comets that travel the distance 

between shaky hands and dirt graves.


I wonder if it’s too late, 

I wonder if it’d be irresponsible to try 

and hold “I should be an astronaut.” 

I wonder if the Moon is waiting

to see me hold everything.


 


Wallace Truesdale II (he/him) is a writer based out of the U.S. East Coast. He has a BA in journalism and media studies from Rutgers School of Communication and Information. He was a finalist for his poem "The Seed of Talent" in Press 53's 2023 Prime Number Magazine Award for Poetry. When not writing, he's reading, playing games, and ruining his teeth with sweets.

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