Earthly Paradise

by Oliver Hoffman

Moon face. Big, beautiful cornfields. Everything that exists in the Ameri Cain
Midwest. Hey there. The Garden of Eden in Jackson County
Exiled from the state so far gone. Here, Eve has moon face
pregnant with twins. That’s cool. She’s cooler on the doc.
First Sphere of
Heaven. She’s not
doing so hot.
Poor girl.

Rise early. Big
old celestial body.
Between sheets
beautiful cornfields grow from your
face. Hey kids.
Willing to be
Abel likes me
more. Cain’t connect Cain’t nothing in
common. Except
Moon face. Like his mother. Attraction of two celestial bodies.

Answer me. Hello? There’s been an accident. Out in the fields. It’s time to go

Home.

That’s cool.

Arguing on the other side of the fly tape.

Cain’t look at the moon anymore in the eye or the nose or the marks
tiny, budding horns in my son. The only one left. Watch cool tears
spilling on the doc. It’s time for him to move out and onto that rock he loves
so much. Weight.

We choose to go
to the moon in this
decade. And do the other things. Not
because they are
easy. Because they
are hard. The moon is just the beginning. I’m going to shoot
that boy in the face if ever comes
back.

Oliver Hoffman (he/him) is a ninth-grader at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX. He’s currently reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.