This is planetary conquest - Justin Clark and Grey Paxton

we exit the atmosphere because submitting to gravity has a cost / the ground /

it holds nothing for us / like an unbalanced compass / flight is a matter of

surrendering to the pressure of merely growing wings / the possibility of carrying

another's weight / or strangling burdens / finally / comfort found in cutting

yourself with puppet strings / loose / mortal tethers severed / masterless /

instead we will drift among observations acquired from universal ends /

the stars / humming a song of falling / in stasis / inside the void / a desert of

creation and sustenance / hands infinite / dreams realized / a latch no longer

clasped / unattached and shut / everything begins to make sense when

unafraid / we won’t know the journey ends / a hole in the sky / wanting

oxygen or gravity / only that which is uninhibited / impetuous / wild /

our blood / our simple joy abandoned / the simple act of liberating clouds

Bio:

Paxton Grey (he/they) is a non-binary, neurodivergent software developer living in Virginia. His work has been published or is forthcoming in Sundog Lit, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Pithead Chapel, Empty Mirror, and elsewhere. They can be found on twitter @PaxWrites.

Justin A. Clark is a father to one toddler living in Indiana. He has an Associate of Science in History and an Associate of Arts in Philosophy. His work has been featured in The Tecumseh Review, Southchild Lit, Interstellar, and elsewhere.