Looking Back

Tsiolkovsky once said the earth was our cradle, but one must leave their cradle someday. Our race has long since mastered the stars. To think we once thought we were slower than light! Numberless planets, they are our home now. Yet I see her there: the land of my fathers. A blue ribbon winding ‘round a bland yellow star. In a quiet corner of the Milky Way. In a regular cluster of galaxies. In a nondescript place in this universe. Just one collection of collated stardust. A watery wealth in the desert of space. So bright, so beautiful, so lonely, so tender— So many ways there are to end her! I’ve never set foot on the soil of the place, where civilization began. Such a strange feeling flows from my heart! Our story could have begun anywhere. But it began there, on that small blue sphere, we’ll call it our home evermore. 6 May 2016