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]
(x = space)
x
x
We Land
x
It is the first
There is a special on TV
Three weeks from now
We land
We land
x
Let’s see
I was twelve
So much I didn’t know
But I was watching
Listening
Technical language
About pitch
And descent
Then dust kicked up
Then landed
I don’t remember Cronkite’s
Reaction
I’ve seen it since
Maybe my parents preferred
Another network
But they were down
Tranquility Base
There had been no base
They were the base
They were on
The moon
Armstrong and Aldrin
While Collins flew above
Waiting for retrieval
And then for the ship
To take them back home
x
That’s where we were
x
Armstrong got out
Kept talking
So we knew
He was alive
He descended
Left the ladder
Touched upon
The world
Near our world
x
One small step for (a) man
One giant leap for mankind
x
When they left
There was a plaque
About accomplishment
And peace
Signed by Nixon
A phantom pledge fulfilled
Since no one
Specifically had asked
Though Kennedy
Had said
x
The space race gave us
Microwaves
Ballpoint pens
And Tang
So there was usefulness
And whatever to be said
In winning
At least
Our saying
That we won
x
I thought we’d keep going back
I thought there’s be a base
With walls and windows
A round roof
And lots
And lots
Of oxygen inside
I guess that is about to happen
Now
And we’ll find out
If we disturb
The empire inside
That H. G. Wells
Fictively
Foretold
x
Or Clarke’s sentinel
Or maybe there shall be
A little
Prince
x
1969
We also went
To Woodstock
We protested war
All the contention of
My older brothers’ generation
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Guzmán Barquín on Unsplash
x
right-angle shadows on the moon
x
before the multiverse
occurred
the universe is infinite
all possibilities
here
x
there might be variations
upon our everything
slipped
through dimensions
frosting on creators’ cakes
x
a calculator without ending
solving pi
a Rubik’s cube offered of
galactic proportions
x
the other side of black holes
is an upside-down that we get used to
once we’re there
where Amelia Earhart
and the crew of the Mary Celeste
found solace
in their time
and what is time
when only numbered four or five
in a mult-dimensional count?
x
here we have questions
there
there are the answers if
upside-down
x
go far enough
to find the portals
to what
might be
the multi-elsewheres
x
c l couch
x
20 july 1969
x
x
x
clcouch123 
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