MOONFLIGHT

Countdown.

And in the east, the moon
blasts off, a slow explosion,
rises, on budget, unmanned,
half-helmet stuffed with light,

ascends

into position, docking
by Babylonian arithmetic
and star-navigation,
with its dark side, waiting.

Now the descent,
watched by hushed trees in the screens
of every pond and puddle and stream,
re-entry through the blaze of dawn
and splashdown in daylight’s

pacific ocean