Liftoff

 

Late

 

I’m driving home,

High-beams

Looking out for

Deer whom I

Might then drive

Around

 

Yellow center

Lines with white

On either side,

 

Bushes and trees

Farther off still

Line the road,

Marching back

In layers of green

 

And black that

Make up the

Horizon, too,

Which I see in

Front of me

 

Then—I hadn’t

Thought of

This—the moon

Rises in my

Direction (that is,

 

The way I’m

Going) behind

Dark verdure

Rows

 

Half-disc bright

Red-orange

Startling the

Sleepy countryside

Into becoming,

As if in an

Astral spell, a

 

Rising plain of

Backlit silhouettes

 

Sentinel at night

Ascends like

An ancient mother

Ship leaving

The quiet earth

Where it has

Hid, now taking

Its watchkeepers

Home;

 

Maybe, too,

A matriarchal

Ark as well, bearing

DNA of flora

And fauna,

Gene-tracings

 

In chromosomes

Of mitochondria

 

Lifting all toward

Freedom of

The Earth, carrying

Our errant

Molecules through

To what we say

Is outer space:

 

Passing other

Spheres of cosmic

Condensation,

 

Asteroids and

Planetoids and

More substantial

Yet nascent

 

Un-wakened

Denizens of

Rock and fire

 

Cradles for

Star-making,

Entering nebulae,

The vessel-charge

At last and

With a knowing

Satellite’s prophetic

Discretion,

 

Diffuses organic

Atoms inside

 

Entropy-laden

Stellar capacity,

Static potential

Wanting alien

Life

 

To incite and

Render systems

Viable for carbon

Habitation;

 

And so

 

Our lives together

Evolve into

The future of

World-making

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