A tube, panels of lights & the promise
of knowing, of seeing, of discovering
our limits, our smallness.

You confront a silence & darkness,
a weightlessness & wonder
nothing can prepare you for.

One day, here where the days 
lose any meaning
you know below,

you leave the ship,
tethered to your machine,
protected from what's natural.

You drift in an airtight
bubbleheaded suit,
a flag on your sleeve.

Back home, loved ones stop
looking skyward, a distance
you can feel & see.