Starman

(This poem may make more sense if you’ve seen what it’s about. If you haven’t, you can search for “Falcon Heavy Test Flight” on YouTube and skip to around 21:30 in the resulting video.)

On the launch pad

The first Falcon Heavy stands

Fog flows from its three towering cores

Jets of water rise in salute

At the fire which kindles in their midst

Surging smoke pours out from under, expanding outwards

The rocket ascends

Riding a tail of incandescent white

Soaring into the wide blue

Both boosters fall away

Spinning and plummeting back

Two pillars of steel pierce the sky from above

And settle to Earth amid rings of flame

Lines of glowing red stripe the upper engine’s smooth, wide nozzle

The payload’s walls blast away

In a blinding blaze of reflected sunlight

A convertible drifts through the void

Our planet’s reflection oozes across the car’s polished red surface

A spacesuit is driving

One arm draped over the side, it looks forward

And flies off into the purest black