Pre-Flight Instructions
Traveling to Earth, you may require
a wide variety of equipment: an inner tube,
an array of knives, ten hours of torrential rain.
Wait, there’s more. Consider: jars filled
with fermented cabbage, a Tibetan prayer bowl,
boots with six-inch heels. These are merely
possibilities. Our apologies. The manifest
detailing necessary provisions has been a mess
since the beginning. Your trip will take
anywhere from zero to eighty years
with a wide variance. We cannot predict
which items will matter most on your
particular journey. Prepare for contingencies.
Prepare to improvise. Accustom yourself
to uncertainty. Here’s some advice
based on several millennia’s worth of reports:
steer clear of anyone holding more than one snake
and of anyone clutching bound volumes
they claim to be divine scripture;
try everything that seems like it won’t bring
a premature end to your experience.
You’ll know how it’s going after thirty years.
Until then, please try not to maim or be
maimed. No one down there can tell you
the rules. Do make an effort to visit the Great
Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea and don’t skip
the Arctic’s Northern Lights, either.
They’re merely charged particles but
they’ll remind you of the splendors of home.
A former bar owner in Brooklyn, NY, SM Stubbs was born and raised in South Florida. His first book, Learning to Drown (Gunpowder Press), was selected for CLMP's Notable Poetry of 2025 list. He has been a staff scholar at the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference and nominated for the Pushcart, Best of the Net, and Best American. His work has (or will) appeared in Shō Poetry, Louisville Review, Tar River, New Ohio Review, Swannanoa Review, and others. More information can be found on his neglected website, smstubbs.com.