Sophie Kietzmann
Jesi and Io
Jesi and Io. October 2019.
I call Io my 'moon baby' because they’re named after one of the Galilean moons. I refer to Io as 'they' because I don’t feel the need to gender someone who’s only just arrived. Someone I don’t want to rush into the pressures of constructs. The cosmic Io here, the cosmic Io out there. The universe embodied, named and nameless. All. I’d never given thought to the possibility of life outside of earth until I read about the Galilean moons of Jupiter in an old textbook I found on a Brooklyn stoop several years ago. Now, whenever I speak my child’s name aloud I’m reminded of our place in the world, in the universe. Of how we’re everything and nothing. And how lucky we are to exist together in this time and place and space as a family. With our names and worries and hopes and dreams.“ - Jesi Taylor Cruz
