Love in Outer Space

Because the bee
In my bonnet
Is the B in my bed,
Who I can’t and I
Won’t stop bumping;
We do the humpty
Hump. My big nose
Nestled in her sassafras.
At attention, we round
Each other out. At ease, 
Her peach is a galaxy.

Now and later is a square
I quietly hold on my tongue,
My mouth an empty gesture. 
Spaced out between her legs, 
I am an astronaut.
The gravity of my offense
Adds up to a rational number.

When the heavens are free
From light, I sit desire on my lap.
She is stardust; And I, 
As it were, am impossible.  
When she asks for space
She is the future. When she
Asks for a room, it is the end. 
I place before her chutes,
Ladders, and whatever else
Might fall from the sky.

Copyright © 2021 by Alison C. Rollins. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 18, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“‘Love in Outer Space’ takes its name from a song on the B-side of jazz musician Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra’s album Secrets of the Sun. In the vein of afrofuturism, this poem offers an otherworldly lens for imagining queer love. As a Black-queer-woman and avid Star Trek fan, I often turn to science fiction in my use of the surreal. Centering possibility within impossibility, the poem seeks to envision a more free and expansive form of intimacy. In the spirit of Audre Lorde’s ‘Uses of the Erotic,’ this poem asserts as well as complicates connection, desire, and joy in the midst of a world on fire.”
—Alison C. Rollins