WHAT I'M DOING HEREMy job is polishing the bio-shieldthe other sky-shiners and me. Once each moon-phase we zip into Teflon jumpsuits, snap on our helmets and tether ourselves to cleats that stud the spinning Krylon sphere, wide as Texas used to be, our ball of hope, our Mother-dome. Armed with robotic cleaning pads and plenty of astrowindex, we circle her by longitudes, removing space grime as we float through the cool ash of stars that have closed for business. I'm a GS-7 and I perform a critical function. Copyright 2000, Chris Cantu
Chris Cantu was born in St. Louis, Missouri and has lived in the Seattle area for over twenty years, where she has variously toiled as a medical research assistant, interior designer, wife and mother, and most recently as an associate editor for Switched-on Gutenberg. Her work has appeared in Flashpoint and Crab Creek Review. She plans to complete the rest of her M.F.A. at the University of Washington during the current millennium.
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