nail salons on mars 

a comet came 
& perched like a song bird.
we drove as far as we could
& ended up on the red surface.
headlights boring holes
through a blanket galaxy.
when you stay up 
past your own shoelaces 
the cosmos tends 
to bend like a snake.
swallowed & swallowed.
we hit a deer. we drowned
in a lake. we crawled 
on our bellies through 
a field of soy beans.
all in search of a place
to be feminine in the perfect way.
the distance through between
perfect & feminine is infinite.
two bodies always sprinting
away from one another.
the salons are like anything
you'd see on earth 
only, outside of the windows 
you can see space debris 
as it floats by. the nail artist says,
"would you like a flower?"
we each get one. the flowers open
on our fingers. she says,
"you must make sure
they do not die." we know
we will let them die
but we hope we can last
as long as possible.
outside, we stare into out nails
& see our reflections.
we are briefly just planets.
huge rocks humming to one another.
all the way home 
back through our own deaths
& the death of the deer,
i wonder about durations
& orbits. how long, i think
how long how long.