Apollo 11 at Fifty-Five

What shall we say
Of the lunar landing
Aldrin
Armstrong
Collins
The many who built the ship
Built the rocket
The many who were on the crew
That day
Whose words and switches
Made things happen

I was there
With the nation
With the world
With the Soviets
Disappointed maybe
Angry
Though I think impressed
All the same
And also many were
Admiring
I believe

Other democracies
Might have been
Envious
Too
That the USA pulled off
What fictively had happened
Already in
Novels
And in the movies
(sometimes
first as novels)
Too

I’d like to think
That all the human spirit
Was attending
That was alive
That day
Astounded
And admiring
One small for a person

One giant leap
For humankind
For all of us then
And now

(and
does this verse
look like a launching

maybe
the beginning
of a landing)

C L Couch


Photo by Sebastian Bjune on Unsplash 
[if I could have found an eagle landing on the water, well, maybe I would have posted that for symbolism]