Afterthought

Small moon
drifting in the black:
afterthought.

#NaPoWriMo, Day 30. (Cassini image of Epimetheus, Dec. 5, 2014. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

9 1/2 years

After 9 1/2 years
woken by sudden flashes
of beauty.

#NaPoWriMo, Day 29. (LORRI raw image, 7/14/2015: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)

I sing the body electric

I sing the body electric
and sealed off
eyes, lips, hair,
cheeks, chin, chest
hidden
wrestling with air.

#NaPoWriMo, Day 28. (Felix Baumgartner’s suit.)

Blurs stop me

Blurs stop me
every time–my eyes
want things clear.

#NaPoWriMo, Day 27. (Étienne Léopold Trouvelot sketch of the Orion Nebula, 1875)

Ochre haze

Ochre haze:
barest hint
of a mountain.

#NaPoWriMo, Day 26. (Mars Curiosity Rover raw image, Sol 1525, left Mastcam. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Camera roll

Hasselblad roll
filled up with Earth–
parting glances.

#NaPoWriMo, Day 25. (One of many images of Earth in outbound Apollo 11’s Hasselblad Magazine AS11-36/N.)

Home is where

Home is where
friends come to greet you
when you’re back.

#NaPoWriMo, Day 24. (Image: Soyuz Expedition 26 landing by NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Gloaming

Last pictures:
our hero enters
the gloaming.

#NaPoWriMo, Day 23. (Cassini raw image, Sept. 14, 2017.)

Sway

Sometimes the tempo
is adagio,
and everything sways
like a dirge.
The kelp heaves
towards shore
on slow waves
then drains back out.
The world
clicks the beats
of a funeral march
for me
when I forget
the time.

#NaPoWriMo, Day 22.

Black on Gray

While Lunar Orbiter looped
our grayscale Moon,
Rothko was painting
his final paintings
all untitled
and stark
on that crescent Earth.

#NaPoWriMo, Day 21.