Milky Way

Cardi B., White Claws, Greek mythology & Idaho shooting stars

Warm wind on my brown thighs

Ancient rocks under my bare feet

Bats flying just above my silver hair

That warm summer night hanging on my ass

Stargazers’ flashlights accidentally landing on my bare breasts a little too long

As I took it all in I watched not one, not two but three shooting stars light up the sky

Not including me.

From our vantage point on a planet Earth, orbiting a single sun star among billions in the Milky Way galaxy, how can we possibly know our galaxy’s true shape?

Once in a lifetime does your Saturday night date with your husband start with eating chili cheese Fritos and drinking White Claws in the front seat of your truck while blaring Cardi B’s W.A.P. & watching two deer completely alone at a deserted Swan Falls Dam until a couple of young lovers pull their car right up next to you and are unimpressed by Mom & Dad’s musical selections so you peel outta there to get nude at this epic photo shoot at a desert overlook trail at the top of the world under the Milky Way with a bunch of stargazers.

It was as glorious as it sounds.

In Greek mythology, the Milky Way was formed after the trickster god Hermes suckled the infant Heracles at the breast of Hera, the queen of the gods, while she was asleep. When Hera awoke, she tore Heracles away from her breast and splattered her breast milk across the heavens. In another version of the story, Athena, the patron goddess of heros, tricked Hera into suckling Heracles voluntarily, but he bit her nipple so hard that she flung him away, spraying milk everywhere.

{all photos taken by the very talented Eryka of Eryka Peskin Photography

who specializes in body positive nude in nature photography}

p.s. do you spy the shooting star trails?