space ranger God



so many

science-fiction futures

read sad to me

yet

maybe I know

why

because they are nearly

always

God-less

the meaning not mentioned

much less

taking part

in new creations

and inventions

comforting

again

our flaws

but gladdened by

the progress

humans make



it might be hard

to craft

too difficult

in fact

since we must invent

our future

stake our hold on it

come disaster

or a clean and silver form

of paradise



and how to say

there’s God in this

that God

pushed us in the spacecraft

that brought the first

to a new world



we instead

must

try to own

and have such bid for ownership

tested

and tried

by what we find

or whom we find



there



toward a final tempering

of us

that accommodates the cosmos

for the differences

we find



to mesh with them

at last

who we are



perhaps we fear

the role

of God would spoil the story

(the real story

too)

and so we play out

only ourselves

on new

planetary stages

and all the things that fly

between



smallest things

(like mustard seeds)

or

parsec-sized things



God might bide

at the launching pad

or well behind

like farewelling parents

waving kerchiefs

allowing tears

for those who leave

we shall not see

again



though

in fact

God sees

and might see toward the end

of our expansion age

how we have done

and what we’ve done

to be here



there might be

judgment following

of our accounting

then decisions

regarding more dimensions

multi-universes

to encounter



encounter serving as

the theme

maybe the most important theme

in sci-fi

and for all the real findings

it inspires



c l couch





Spaceship Earth

photo by Ronald Yang on Unsplash