The Papers Might Not Ask About Your Shirt

I am a member of the human race, I want what's best for all of us. I want a future that looks bright for my kids and my grandkids.

This is Ground Control to Major Tom

You've really made the grade

And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear...

— David Bowie

They've Really Made the Grade - Have We?

What if you launched a rocket

Called Falcon 9

With Bob and Doug aboard

Sent it spaceward

Atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust

Creating a brilliant light show of

Unmeasured, unmeasurable candlepower

Indescribable, incomprehensible beauty

As propulsion gases

Interact with space and light

Crafting temporary nebulae

Exacting aesthetic

From elegant precision

Of sophisticated technology

Moving bullet speed times ten

Marking an historic, momentous occasion

Portending an expanding, exciting

New presence out in the final frontier

And as Doug and Bob

Hurtle along in Crew Dragon

Looking back

At the shrinking blue marble

See it burning

Restless

Yearning for liberty

And justice

For all?

Asking for 7.5 billion friends…

David Bowie – Space Oddity (Official Video)

© 2020 greg cain

Comments

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on February 11, 2021:

Thank you, Sankhajit. Also, I'm terribly sorry I missed your comment all those months ago.

Sankhajit Bhattacharjee on September 22, 2020:

l enjoyed your writing up to the brim...

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 18, 2020:

Thanks again, Rasma. Words like yours encourage me, and I appreciate that.

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 18, 2020:

Thanks, William. Yes, it does indeed. It always was one of my faves, but not until long after it'd already hit the charts and left. I was pretty young then.

Thanks for stopping by and giving this a look!

Gypsy Rose Lee from Daytona Beach, Florida on June 09, 2020:

Most inspiring and creative.

William Kovacic from Pleasant Gap, PA on June 07, 2020:

Interesting and well-done, Greg. Space Oddity - that goes back a few years.

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 02, 2020:

Thanks, Gilbert. Yes, it was a tremendous spectacle. As far as the mission to space station went, it was flawless in every way. Meanwhile, the world milieu was not without flaw...

Thanks for stopping by and giving a read.

Gilbert Arevalo from Hacienda Heights, California on June 01, 2020:

It's nice you gained inspiration from Saturday's mission and put it into poetry, Greg. The rocket responded much more powerful than previous rockets of the past.

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 01, 2020:

Liz - thank you in return for carefully choosing and crafting your own words here. I appreciate it greatly.

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 01, 2020:

Hi Fran - I think perhaps the most powerful aspect of this is that it is all happening at the same time. Capturing it puts the moments side by side like butterflies in a collector’s album. We can then see and ponder the contrast between them, be amazed that both happened in one day’s turning of the blue marble.

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 01, 2020:

Hi Flourish thanks for the very nice compliment. I am grateful.

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 01, 2020:

Amani - thanks, and I look forward to visiting your works as one of your newest followers, too.

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 01, 2020:

Ruby - thanks for the thoughtful comments. I, too, hope that peace will prevail and that equality will endure.

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 01, 2020:

Hey Sha! Yes, bittersweet is a good word, isn’t it? Apropos for the situation. I love the song Space Oddity, remember how sad it made me when I was a kid. Reminiscent of “Silent Running,” a movie from the 60s or 70s that has stuck with me also since I was a pup.

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 01, 2020:

Thanks, Bill. I appreciate the succinct but powerfully meaningful comment,

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 01, 2020:

Thanks, Holley. Yes, it seems like any other year and the SpaceX launch would have been the top story for days. And so it goes...

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 01, 2020:

Hi Lorna - thanks so much. It is hard to watch all this and not want to express.

greg cain (author) from Idaho, USA on June 01, 2020:

Eric - thank you for stopping by and checking it out.

Liz Westwood from UK on May 31, 2020:

Carefully crafted words make an interesting spectacle.

Ruby Jean Richert from Southern Illinois on May 31, 2020:

Food for thought! Hopefully peace will prevail.

fran rooks from Toledo, Ohio on May 31, 2020:

Wow! Powerful and right to the point. Loved it.

FlourishAnyway from USA on May 31, 2020:

Awesome poem

Amani Utembu from Nairobi -Kenya on May 31, 2020:

Great piece.

Ruby Jean Richert from Southern Illinois on May 31, 2020:

This is a powerful poem/statement. The world needs to unite!

Shauna L Bowling from Central Florida on May 31, 2020:

Hey, Box! What an intriguing title! It didn't register at first until I read the line from "Space Oddity".

This is a wonderful tribute to the fearless men who were launched from Cape Canaveral yesterday. Bittersweet also comes to mind.

Bill Holland from Olympia, WA on May 31, 2020:

An arrow through the heart of the matter, my friend.

Holley Morgan from Upstate New York on May 31, 2020:

Nicely written. You did a great job weaving together the current political/human climate with yesterday's event. I like the sense of awe and details surrounding the launch but how the focus still goes back to humanity.

Lorna Lamon on May 31, 2020:

In the light of what is happening in the US at the moment, the words "Yearning for liberty and justice for all" became very meaningful to me. A wonderful poem Greg - powerful.

Eric Dierker from Spring Valley, CA. U.S.A. on May 31, 2020:

Cool, thanks for sharing this.