1 files changed, 59 insertions, 0 deletions

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+---
+title: On seeing the panorama of the Apollo 11 landing site
+genre: verse
+
+id: apollo11
+toc: "On seeing the panorama of the Apollo 11 landing site"
+
+ekphrastic:
+    image: "panorama-apollo11.jpg"
+    title: "Big deal."
+    link: "http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141220.html"
+
+project:
+    title: Elegies for alternate selves
+    class: elegies
+    order: 5
+    next:
+    - title: Ars poetica
+      link: arspoetica
+    prev:
+    - title: And
+      link: and
+...
+
+| So it's the [fucking moon][].  Big deal.  As if
+| you haven't seen it before, tacked to the sky
+| like a [rotten hunk of meat][], a maudlin love
+
+| letter (the _i_s dotted with hearts) hung
+| on the sky like ninety-eight theses.
+| Don't stare at it like it means anything.
+
+| Walk past it quickly, eyes averted.
+| Don't give it the chance to collect meaning
+| from your [outstretched hand like a pigeon][].
+
+| Ascribing it a will, calling it fickle, or
+| thinking it has any say or even an opinion
+| of your affairs is a mistake: it's separated
+
+| from you by three hundred eighty thousand miles
+| of emptiness, staring at you blankly like a child
+| or your reflection when you found your love broken
+
+| in the dark, when time fell apart, broke down,
+| started following you around everywhere, [moonfaced][],
+| doggedly asking where you're going, like you know.
+
+| Don't try side stepping time, either: it's only
+| a river you're stuck in, [carrying you][] under the glare
+| of the moon nuzzling closer, cooing in your ear
+
+| like a dove that escapes into the empty sky at dawn.
+
+[fucking moon]: deathstrumpet.html
+[rotten hunk of meat]: roughgloves.html
+[outstretched hand like a pigeon]: last-passenger.html
+[moonfaced]: boy_bus.html
+[carrying you]: music-433.html