you are a homeless future

little jo, dad said, did you think life was fair? 

wash the car before the sun sets

or you'll go straight to the moon, all alone,

making it easier for us here to breathe

without yelling into the earth to try to find

you, embarrassed of your roots, your family.

i don't want to go to the moon, i say, knowing he isn't

listening. an hour later he comes back, says,

who said the afterlife was going to be fun, kid?

Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Joanna is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015) Marys of the Sea (The Operating System, 2017), Xenos (Agape Editions, 2016), Sexting Ghosts (Unknown Press, 2018), No(body) (Madhouse Press, 2019), and #Survivor (The Operating System, 2020). They are the editor of A Shadow Map: Writing By Survivors of Sexual Assault (CCM, 2017), and received a MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Joanna is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, as well as the senior managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine.