The launching of the final American space shuttle, Atlantis, this morning has held our attention here at Atticus Books all week long. First with our otherworldly issue of Atticus Review, and now with a poem from our publisher, we’re commemorating this momentous end of an era. While the final launch and closing of the book on mankind’s space travel (at least for now) means many things to many people, it certainly is something to make us pause, think, and wonder. And we invite you to join us.
Inspired by Bob Dylan’s “Every Grain of Sand”
In the sign of autumn’s awakening
In the plane of the Milky Way
Near a star not alive, unlike the Sun
Plus a thousand light years away.
In a place with no beachfront property
In a mass like the Earth times three
Out there somewhere in the far galaxy
Our system’s holy grail to be.
In the labs of deep-sky technology
In the minds of the scientists
By radio dish, ideology
Safer planets than ours exist.
In the slums of the Bowery’s ghettos
In the layers of blood and spit
With microscope focused and slides exposed
Mankind’s findings find peace unfit.
In the time of this nation’s recession
In the hour of its deepest need
Dying voices croak in the oppression
As warfare spreads rampant like weed.
In the wasteland of street crime poverty
In the tar traps of Pothill Bend Road
A “For Sale” sign greets the calamity
On crab grass that needs to be mowed.
(1992)
Photo Source: The Tech Herald
Photo Credit: NASA
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One response to “Orbiting Our Future”
Who says occasional poetry is dead? Here is the real news of our civilization, not the blather in which we're daily soiled. Thank you.