lingua obscura

A Flower Grows On The Asteroid Field

a waning gibbous rises
provides me with another chance
to wax poetic

moon, moon
bright and shiny moon

we are attracted to you
because you are the nearest
of celestial bodies

you are the light that cuts through
the fog of my thoughts

which is, often other
wise impenetrable

in reading recent news stories
about the hazards of "space debris,"
I discover the perfect analogy
for my mental state

such are the occupational hazards
of trying to reach beyond
your home planet

a new slogan on the international spacestation:
smash a satellite and everyone suffers

in fragmentation,
one can also find
fertility

a tree grows in brooklyn,
a flower springs up in the asteroid field

the true tests of interdependence
occur in zero gravity

right now there are plans to put ATMS on other planets
and companies selling space-flight tickets to the privileged

it is the task of the poet
to outdistance these opportunists
to reach even further in a search
for uncorrupted star
and word clusters

moon, you are the touchstone
we meet along the way

to stick a love note on the Hubble with Hubba Bubba gum
reading:
"Eagle Nebula, I respect your complexity
but at the end of the day, all I know for sure
is that your colors are pretty."