“Beam me up, Scottie!”

He was changed

in more ways than they will say.

A year away will do that to a man.

Genes are the conditions we share,

more than hand me down denim.

It seems seven is a stellar symbol

to mark the rate of change.

(Inspired by forthcoming study and official announcement by NASA)

Photo credit By NASA/Robert Markowitz [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Thirteen billion miles

First, ask yourself-
is it interesting
or worth further exploration?

Truly we are Voyagers.
This generation of seekers
has reignited
a flame.

Now, put a price tag on 'Time'
or light years-
A full moment is three seconds
or pennies in hypotheses-
how much Life
you are allotted in diurnal
years of Julian speed,
minus eleven minutes
and some fragmented seconds
may be written
in a single sentence.

Told we should learn
to figure things out for ourselves,
memorize how to hibernate
for the future.
And it is wise advice
for one and all solid bodies
traveling through space
at this terminal velocity.

I wonder if gravity waves
make white noise as they ripple
or only when they crash...

Some say,
Exile is a death, a geographical terminus.
Knowing one's history is written
over, like footprints and
now traveling under someone else's shoe.

But if I have something endless
enough to keep me fully
occupied;
a tree, a rock, water, or the sky-
time does flutter a lot
like Hope.

At last,
I ask myself,
after every sentence has been read,
is this an interesting enough
equation to try
to solve?




Photo By NASA [Public domain], 'Farouk El-Baz, Ronald Evans and Robert Ovemyer via Wikimedia Commons.


NASA reported on December 1st, 2017 that the rocket thrusters on the space probe Voyager 1 responded 13 billion miles away in interstellar space.

Welcome Home Space Cadet

After 520 days of being away things change.
After more than a year away
one cannot expect things to remain
the same.

It's not like we didn't know you were gone.
We were watching from home base,
safely and with sound (waves).
We celebrated and we waited
for your safe return
and now you're back
we've learned.

Well sir, welcome home to Earth
 you now have a million twitter followers
for what it's worth.

Imagine the mail, the mess waiting
for him upon return-
and how his eyes and ears must burn!
I imagine our hopeful sunrises are dim,
slim and nowhere near as bright
here comparatively.
When watched from exosphere
perspective where the altered subjective,
figuratively rises either way, for another day
some where
and the effect of green flash last
until at least until tomorrow
I don't know
how
you held on for six
reloads, but with your body double
down here,
we hope to better understand your year
in space, at least physically, for history
sake, the emotional toll will remain a mystery.

Mr. Kelly, you said sleep was hard up
there, there is no rest,
and that was all just part
of the nightmarish tests
to see if you'd keep your head on
straight
without gravity
or a leg to stand on.

So how does one acclimate
to a constant limbo state?
Is fate suspended,
karma expended elsewhere?
Will he ever remember
how to be a heavy human member?
Perhaps he will take more leaps
after he sleeps
for a long
long
long
time
(stretched
blini
thin).

NASA noted
the newly made progress toward
the next giant leap for that kind of man.
Nearer are we, said the space agency
to getting 'boots on Mars'
which sounds warily like warfare jargon.
I dare say, it should be worded another way,
perhaps NASA should ask the ESA...

But NASA's not so concerned with tact,
and rathering to collect all the facts
from more than four hundred
experiments performed,
data they've been dying
for, they said
a benefit to all humanity.

Hopefully Mr. Kelly kept his souvenir
in sanity.
We are glad to have you back,
let's start you off with some Prozac.
The weight of the world is rather heavy.



Image By NASA ([1]) of Scott Kelly (left) and Mikhail Kornienko on the ISS 2015[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.