The Space Souvenir by Caitlin Moore

            My mom gave me one Christmas a silver glass glitter object, reaching towards the sky like an alien creation. It is round on bottom, though empty; on top of the roundness is another, smaller, round glass bubble. It has Van Gogh swirls of glitter. On top of it is a large frozen teardrop, like Alice's only made of glass, big like her giant self after eating the cookie. The object is on my peeling distressed white and pink drawers. But its original intention was to be a Christmas tree ornament -- ruling on top of the tree, pointing north, being festive. But it doesn't say that to me. It sings about the future, like David Bowie.

            David Bowie is an alien. Certainly this object is alien, too. Silver is the color of the future and space. Aliens can time travel. Aliens have to do with the approaching because in the coming world there will be aliens. We will have discovered them or vice versa. Bowie writes about glimpsing an alien in the sky as a teenager. "Don't tell your papa or he'll get us locked up in fright." This shows a fear of the future but a willingness for the younger generation to have open minds towards new things like aliens. There is a fate left up to the young ones' imaginations.

            He writes of our future fate. Bowie's lines go, "Gotta make way for the Homo Superior." This has to do with a new race of people, superior, with also a gay wink with "homo," as glam rock artists were wont to do. Bowie is a magician of time and space. He dressed in tight leotards with spiky hot red hair. He will be forever in the skies. He died a year ago, though people on the internet say that he found a new dimension and is slowly picking celebrities to die and come live with him in this new universe.            

            Bowie is about the future. As a teenager, it helps to listen to David Bowie. He sings to you, "You're too old to lose it, too young to choose it." He brings you from your childhood into a state of adulthood -- your upcoming life. Bowie reminds me of a coming of age -- being a young man performing for the first time. "The boy in the bright blue jeans jumped up on the stage and Lady Stardust sang his songs of darkness and disgrace." Performing is a way of solidifying your created identity: Lady Stardust is the boy… the boy is Lady Stardust. The future is one of gender blur. I can tell because all the transgender people are coming out of the woodwork. I think in our future this will be more accepted.

            It’s nice to have an alien object, sparkling and pointing to the heavens, like a futuristic creature, its glitter reflecting rainbows and its emptiness and swirled outside holding it together like a hard jellyfish. It is like ice, like one of Jupiter’s moons. It sings like David Bowie, my hero.