CHALLENGER
Seven
angels spread their wings,
took their
places, hovered, watched.
Eleven children wept by
wisteria not in
bloom,
lilacs not in flower. There
is no purple, there are no
tears. "O, Angels of the loom,
weave my mother back into
the warp of time, slow the drift
of hadrons to trace again
my
father's face, for there is
no purple, but too many,
many tears."
Leaving relics
of flesh, a bit of bone for
the mourning world to
dissect
with precision, bury with
pomp, they danced off
ecstatic,
one perfect Bang, electron
to electron, dispersed in
the
cool wind. At zero, plus
seventy four, marking time,
having
slowed down to speed up,
eyeing the peace of space, blue,
deep, the
white bullet, tagged
by destiny to explore
polar regions of the
sun,
shattered. Whizzing atoms shot
fragmented past facets
of
emptiness searing human
images across the clear,
icy
void, the nothingness
of free Bubbles of silence.
"O, astronaut,
astronaut,
hide yourself so cleverly
among moons that you
cannot
be found. Become the marching
universe, become every
particle of it. Let those
who look for you not find you.
O, astronaut, astronaut,
scatter your molecules, merge
with the quarks, be our vanguard.
Send us out, at our choosing,
to explode among stars."
Copyright © 2000 Jan Haag
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Jan Haag may be reached via e-mail: jhaag@u.washington.edu
I Am Innuit
McDonald Observatory
BY JAN HAAG