since their creation, birthed through the wonders of a nebula, they’ve been alone.
always hung in the sky, fixed, never moving, never changing, never evolving, always stagnant.
they see both the star that glows brightly through the ages, and the figure,
skin dark like the blankest corners of this universe,
hair as bright as the glow of a moon.
is this even a life at all?
from their perch, they stare down at the small planet, swirled in blues and greens and whites
and, though they aren’t sure how, they can somehow see, as if through a
window: each and every tiny human’s life,
their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their lives–
that is what life is, that is what living is like
and so they reach
down, down, down
down, until they feel something they have never felt before, tugging at their stomach from somewhere far away, space and time swirling around them, heat, speed, burning–
they feel their eyes, all trained upon them, and hears their wishes,
their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their lives
they feel, for once, like they matter–
and then,
peace.
Adrien Astère Rolley is a queer trans French-American. He is a senior majoring in Animation at the School of Visual Arts. Adrien specializes in 2D FX animation and Visual Development. He also does music, costuming, and metalworking.