5686. CAPE CANAVERAL

CAPE CANAVERAL

Shoot for the stars, shoot for the planets, count those

old days for the federated skies  -  this was the start

of something, once. Mercury rockets dancing through

smoke, pilfered notations of NASA's of sound. It was

so long ago  -  small boys with transistor radio on

backdoor steps listening. Alan Shepard and John 

Glenn, Russian dogs and monkeys, all sorts of

things cast out, brazenly, into unknown space.

We counted backwards, all those crazy numbers, 

with them, as if candy-bars awaited us in some

cathedral of a newer time sitting still, finally,

at the journey's end.