Liber Iovis - Chapter 44

Verses

I was banished to the thirty-second moon, which sounds important until you see the other sixty-three.

Jupiter fills half the window. I close the curtain and it continues existing with offensive confidence.

At home the horizon let a man imagine escape. Here every horizon curves back toward the king.

They say we orbit because we are held. The romantic poets omit the velocity required not to fall.

I have learned the mathematics of remaining near what you cannot approach.

Some nights the giant's aurora stains the dark and even resentment becomes beautiful.

This is the cruel advantage of magnificent enemies.

A small maintenance cat arrived in the cargo shuttle. She sleeps facing away from Jupiter.

I asked her secret. She bit my glove.

Europa shines below like a thought under ice. Io burns as if punishment could become geography.

Each moon has invented a different explanation for why it stays.

Mine is simpler: leaving is expensive.

Do not confuse orbit with devotion.

Do not confuse distance with freedom.

One day my bones will enter the regolith. Jupiter will not notice. I find this increasingly comforting.