Fish out of water

Dolphin stranded on Falmouth beach this morning put down

The Falmouth Packet, 3 October 2012

Out of his thick glass eye

he sees the ocean,

the whole ocean not just the shore.

The sun has set on North Carolina

since he last saw from the window

a cloudless sky down below.

He might have been sleeping

if that’s the right verb

for retreating a while

into a meditation on freefall.

Night will fall, too,

across Lake Michigan soon

and he will not watch the sunrise

again in Chicago, Illinois.

(c) 2012 Slush Poet

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