The man on the moon

Neil Armstrong 1930-2012: modesty on the moon

The Guardian, 26 August 2012

It was one small step

and for several seconds yours

and yours alone.

Humanity froze

waiting for your postcards home,

yet you had moved on

and history itself marks time

in steps that can’t be undone:

the first flint struck,

a mark on a cave wall

that once read good hunting

at the waterhole

and now says boldly go.

Your footprints, still on the moon,

lead who knows where.

(c) 2012 Slush Poet

Silverlight (No 2 of ¡Las Canciones Bravas!)

Mars rover Curiosity safely lands on the red planet

Independent, 6 August 2012

I surface to splashing and children's
shouting - the world washed out
in silverlight, dry-mouthed -
the sounds of waterplay,

like the morning after the night
a man on the moon really became
the man on the moon, and I came to
to the echo of my name.

(c) Slush Poet