Interplanetary Exchange Student

by Jebron Perkins

I am a man the same way that Thomas the train is a man

In the same way that Goofy is a man

In the same way that planet Mars is a man

I am a man in the same way that I am a Martian

And on this foreign planet that I call my home,

I am a man

But on Mars,

there are no men // we are all men

(simultaneously)

On Mars,

We draw our lines with wind

And let the tempest make the rules

Because who are we

to presume we know more than Mother Nature

To believe we can take the expanse that she created and bind it

Restrain it to a concept we can point our fingers at

On Mars,

We are men in the truest sense

That truth being the internal whisper that I am

That I am who I say I am

Nothing more // Nothing less

(consecutively)

On Mars,

I am more than a man

Something human language cannot even hope to describe

So they call it alien,

They call me martian

Little do they know

I am a Martian in the same way I am a man