stardna!

Theo

I’m Theo, a multidisciplinary artist and disability justice organizer based in Michigan. My recent work focuses on medical trauma, isolation, social abandonment, the disabled punk movement, and finding beauty everywhere. You can find more of my work at citrinecraft.neocities.com.

stardna!

Kasidy tells me that loving the stars is in our DNA. That’s why we evolved to sleep on our backs, she says. I imagine what a night would look like through the eyes of a human from the beginning. The very last blink before sleep, an eye full of Luna. A view so full of light and wonder. Did they give Chiron a goodnight kiss? Did they feel safe under Saturn’s watchful eye? Did they lie with their arm outstretched, pointer finger parallel with Jupiter? Did big brothers always trace the space between the stars, connecting constellations for their little brothers? See? That’s us, the older boy says, drawing in the sky. The Big and Little Dipper.

This is what I think of as I cruise down the sidewalk moments before twilight, the last half hour the stars still rule the sky. Mitski’s new album, Nothing’s About To Happen To Me plays, I press my palm power chair’s joystick. Without thought, I recline my chair and close my eyes. When I open them, Jupiter stares right at me, the brightest thing I’ve ever seen. The dark is speckled with stars, and it reminds me of the way paint sprays when I flick the bristles of a paintbrush. I don’t remember what Kasidy told me until later; leaning my chair back was as automatic as a sigh. I love myself for being human.