LEVEL ZERO

Mykki Rios

I am barely a teenager / playing Super Mario Sunshine / I have Mario riding Yoshi / blasting enemies with fruit juice / like a deranged Capri Sun commercial / suddenly / we drop into one of the void spaces / so common in these games / only to land in the bottomless dark / in a place / both within and outside the game / where true life / twinkles out of reach / resembling merry moons / orbiting an absent planet / and the only way out is dying

I am a teenager / playing Final Fantasy XII / the boss in the sewer dungeon / is a horse made of fire / for some reason / not really a gap / in programming / proof / that nothing is friend to the dark / more than the unexpected / the deeper you go / the more likely you find / something / then wish you hadn’t

I am definitely no longer a teenager / playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons / inconsistently / and I wonder / when I abandon my villagers / to get my actual house in order / are they huddled in perpetual night / waiting for my return / I do not want to clean / or face the guilt / or fury / of a duck / or a sewing porcupine / or a public servant / who is also a cute dog / all trying / to keep a town alive / while weeds and pests flourish

Sometimes you are so low / it feels like the world is / out of reach / places so beautiful / you could never belong / but what waits for you / if you stay in the shadows / all that remains / is forging ahead / maybe paradise is an idea / but home is real / you can always clean up your town / draw back your curtains / tend your garden / even at the false bottom / to a seemingly endless pit