Night launch (Apollo 17)

the novelty wore off

  

Still Life #2

Acrylic painting of lunar surface with rover based on an Apollo 17 photo at Shorty Crater (credit: NASA). Mixed media: acrylic, paper bag, cardboard, paper, and box.

Ideal self

never land

Typewritten and stamped words on historic image of Pacific Recovery Area for Apollo 17, last human spaceflight to the Moon. Image credit: NASA.

“Ignition”

Jack Schmitt’s Apollo 17 EVA gloves from last mission to the Moon. Image credit: NASA, National Air and Space Museum’s Garber Facility, and Ulrich Lotzmann.

Grand speeches are for arrivals.
Leaving we don’t say much.
Why would we?

We’re coming back
after going home
for a little while
to re-supply

and to feed maps and pictures
of the Moon to the children

until the Moon-fed children learn
they can’t even go there

and they rebel

which creates enough fuel
for the return.

I want to watch the sunrise

Fragments of text taken from the Apollo 17 voice transcripts; this section of the transcripts includes Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt witnessing sunrise in Earth orbit.

Grit

Strange orange soil on the moon noticed by Harrison Schmitt and collected by Eugene Cernan during the Apollo 17 mission (1972). Credit: NASA.

Keep writing

if moon dust
clogs the gears
and coats your clothes

and is the grit
covering your words

brush it away

keep writing.