Skip to main content

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

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's Not Fantasy, It's "Magical Realism"

As you probably remember (if you're in Mr. Starace's class at least), Ms. Heitz semi-recently gave us  this article  explaining what magical realism is and how it differs from fantasy. As I read it, I became more and more irritated, finally deciding that I needed to write something demonstrating how it is emblematic of a significant problem in how those who analyze literature view certain genres. Luckily, I have a blog where there is a possibility that someone might actually read my rant on the subject, so here are my thoughts on why magical realism is not a distinct literary genre, but a category of fantasy literature. Literary critics, wanting to feel more discerning than the average reader, are loath to ascribe literary merit to popular "genre fiction": fantasy, science fiction, mystery, horror, etc. They were thus presented with a conundrum when a new style of writing arose in Latin America. It was full of supernatural elements, and thus fit the standard defi...

Do We Really Want the Trump Administration Censoring the Media?

MissRepresentation was an excellent documentary. Before watching it, I was already aware of many of the problems with the representation of women in media which it illuminates, but I was still impressed at how comprehensive and powerful its argument was. However, I disagree with the film on one major point: I do not think that media content should be further regulated by the government or any other organization, even with the purpose of reducing the objectification of women. To see why this kind of regulation could be so problematic, it is helpful to look at the history of media censorship in the United States. From 1930 to 1968, almost all American movies were produced under the  Motion Picture Production Code , a set of rules governing what could be shown onscreen. The rules were intended to safeguard public virtue by eliminating immoral content from the media and were created by the film industry itself to preempt government regulation. While the idea of such a code may seem l...

Breaking the Shackles of Ancestry

I very recently had the good fortune to watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi , and while there were a host of things I liked about the movie, there was one which especially stood out: the identity of Rey's parents. Now, if you haven't seen the movie yet, please go do so before reading the rest of this post. It really is excellent and will be better the less you know about it going in (I purposefully did not watch any previews or trailers beforehand, and that definitely enhanced the experience). Now that you've returned (or have already seen the movie, or just don't care about spoilers) I will continue. In The Last Jedi , it is revealed that Rey's parents were... (drumroll, please)... not named characters, but a pair of inconsequential nobodies who sold her to buy alcohol. Yes, that's right, Rey is not descended from anyone important. It may strike you as odd that I would be so excited by this, so I will endeavor to explain why it's one of the better parts of...