Teesta Review: A
Journal of Poetry, Volume 4, Number 1. May 2021. ISSN: 2581-7094
Mae Jemison in Flight
Hailing frequencies open
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Alicia Sometimes
Physician—Astronaut—Chemical
Engineer
the beginning of many
careers
ready to launch vertical
into history
Numbers count:
In 1992 Jemison logged
190 hours 30 mins 23
seconds
in space on the STS-47
mission
Space Shuttle Endeavour
126 times circling in
stable transit
dizzying in thin wings above
the blue and white swirl
of the earth
Mission Specialist 4 who
knew she
‘…belonged here as much
as any
speck of stardust, any
comet, any planet’
investigated and
experimented
with weightlessness,
bone cell research,
so much more, attempting to thread
any connections, insights or triumph
Images matter:
carried a picture with
her of Bessie
Coleman—the first Black
woman
with a pilot
license—aviator Queen Bess
took a poster of Judith
Jamison dancing
along for the ride
(performing Alvin Ailey's Cry
—the arc of her arm like
a crescent moon
the white dress swimming
against the dark canvas)
As a child, she saw
Nyota Uhura
give orders on the USS Enterprise
this fictional translator
and communications
officer, a benchmark for
any starship dreamer
Mae Jemison working in
low Earth orbit
creating a dynamic first of her own
the gravity of this
moment
the thrill of this
adventure
opening up space where it wasn’t there before