In smoke and flames of mighty Apollo
T-minus fifteen seconds, engines on!
Oh, great ship of divine distance I saw go
when rocketeers on lunar ascent shone.
New Age Columbus kings voyage and realm
in your Saturn V rocket to the moon -
new worlds beyond and Earth men at the helm
when supersonic cracked its sonic boom.
I saw the face of Jupiter and Mars,
saw a golden eagle fly through deep space,
and saw Prometheus reach for the stars
with flag and footprint of the human race.
I raced home from school excitedly
and huddled the old stereogram radio -
the Eagle had landed in zero gravity
by the light of the Earth’s blue glow.
The flight of the zodiac did turn and burn
in lunar orbit out of the Milky Way -
to the moon and back I waited its return
on re-entry splashdown on the eighth day.
I saw the face of Jupiter and Mars,
saw a golden eagle fly through deep space,
and saw Prometheus reach for the stars
with flag and footprint of the human race.
Written: May 1992
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