The ascent is an undressing.
A press of a button
jettisons so much.
Within a moment,
the ship is naked and free.

Down below,
the earth is water-logged,
pock-marked with islands
lit in clusters,
dark everywhere else.

But, like a poor child
destined for great things,
there’s no percentage
in dwelling on
where it’s coming from.

There are planets to
speed by, moons to
condemn to the
rear-view mirror,
for this arrow to the stars,

this cruiser soon to
depart the solar system
with all its physical
and emotional gravities,
No people aboard,

merely cameras
and computers,
radio wave transmitters,
robotic arms and
sheer relentlessness.

An action’s repercussion,
an almighty thrust at the expense
of gravity, a journey to worlds
unknown, an old impossibility
energized, feasible at last.