How to Grow a Home
 
We can’t carry Earth with us
on our backs, snail-like
we need to grow our new home:
 
bacteria-impregnated concrete
doubling and redoubling
into exponential bricks;
 
layers of cyanobacteria,
laced through water ice,
laminates that exhale air;
 
myco-architecture,
fungal spores pressed into frames;
just add water,
and watch the pilei expand
in psychedelic profusion.
 
We’ll work chloroplast-laden bacteria
into our clothes,
generating energy from light
as we bask in the sun
beneath an aerogel dome.
 
Far from home,
yet in the heart of it;
it grows around us
as alive as we are.

Deborah L. Davitt


Deborah L. Davitt grew up on a regular diet of Star Trek (original series), Star Wars (the original films), and books like Earthseed and Eye of the Comet. For more about her work, see www.deborahldavitt.com.


Art by Briget Heidmous: https://www.briget-heidmous.com/