Descending on Jupiter

Outside the window I see
swirling colors and enormous 
red spots – they could swallow
whole continents back home

I see parallel stripes like bandages
around a giant's massive head, I
see gas in a spiraling frenzy

What I wish I could see is Io 
who was killed in torment and 
became the sea – no wonder she's
full of fire inside

Particles glitter on the window
and I stop thinking of Io
and the sea – stardust we are all

When I finally enter the
atmosphere, my confined shuttle
violently vibrates and it
feels like I'm kissed by the Sun 
hydrogen and helium
clouds all around me and as I'm
falling I wonder is there a

bottom at the end, somewhere to
step onto and stretch my legs
or there's only air and storm

***

Elena Savva Kotsile (pen name) is a writer and a scientific editor based in Berlin, Germany. Her words have appeared in international (Anti-Heroin Chic, Rabid Oak, Air & Nothingness) and Greek journals and anthologies. She writes speculative poetry and fiction in English and Greek and she’s working on her first novel. She cannot escape existentialism and absurdism and she tweets whenever she feels like it @Elena_Beate.