Lost in Space
         for Jeff

In space, no one
can hear you ask,

“Do you have
a Prime account?”
at Whole Foods.

Nor can they offer
free shipping with
a thirty-day trial membership.

The Washington Post,
with its endless chatter
of neoliberal propaganda,
fades into distant memory.

Just you, with your
fishbowl helmet, framing
your baldness
like a translucent crown.

Fly into the outer reaches
of the galaxy, colonize Mars
into an enormous warehouse.

No one will clock in
late for their graveyard shift.

You won’t need
to count the days
before your dividends

arrive: that final billion
dollar deposit, until
you explode into

a magnificent supernova,
molecules scattering
their alms to a plundered
and impoverished cosmos.

Somewhere, a woman
orders underwear
from a small online company.
Somewhere, a programmer
finds discount software
at the last Radio Shack.

You are oblivious space dust,
particles floating like
dollar bills through the galaxies,
one for each remaining star.

---

Previously published online in Rattle magazine’s “Poets Respond,” June 2021.

Leah Mueller is an indie writer and spoken word performer from Bisbee, Arizona. Her most recent books, Misguided Behavior, Tales of Poor Life Choices (Czykmate Press), Death and Heartbreak (Weasel Press), and Cocktails at Denny’s (Alien Buddha), were released in 2019. Her new chapbook, Land of Eternal Thirst, will be published in summer, 2021. Her work appears in Rattle, Midway Journal, Citron Review, and elsewhere. Her website is www.leahmueller.org.