Space Geographer
Part 5

Morgan Hannah
Life & Style Editor

 

r

 

One... Two... Three... My breathing is slow and deep. My skin is cool and
tingles like menthol leaking throughout my body. Four... Five... with wide eyes
and a weak war cry, I spin around, everything is a blur of red until it isn’t.

Standing at five and a half feet tall with bumpy, dark green skin hanging
loosely around a barrel-shaped body, is an unflattering, unknown creature.
Astrangled noise escapes me, like a balloon wheezing out the last of its air.

I jam my hands into my hair and brush it back from my face as I stumble
around a little to regain my footing. I cannot believe this, there’s an actual
alien standing in front of me! Other Space Geographers brag about their
vague encounters with other species, and, I mean, we do have alien languages
built into the translator, so someone, somewhere, must’ve run into aliens at
some point. But now I have, too! Me!

Memories of when my younger brother and I would play with our plastic
green alien figurines—sprawled across the beige shag carpet in my childhood
home—invade my thoughts. Roaming through unknown landscapes
and terrorizing a make-believe society of dimwitted humans... Those
extraterrestrial-fueled days are a major part of why I’m here today on this
foreign planet, encountering a real-life foreign species. I just wish my brother
was here to see this, too.

 

 

 

 

I know
youre
waiting
for us to
find you

Sonam Kaloti
Arts Editor

 

oh simple phrases

secrets in sealed cases

pine and work isn’t helping
the ending is tempting
meet where the sky opens
“fall into my arms,” you sing

why can't I see you
I’m surrounded

yet I’m walking blind
let me find you

take me back to when

I didn’t wonder what’s keeping
me

from endless slumber
the stars can say that
they will catch you
but I’m not sure if that’s true

 

Tl try

Illustration by Morgan Hannah