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Tranquillity Base here (edit 2)
Tranquillity Base here
Linen shirts, steel cars, houses
from hardwood, the waltzes
of Johan Sebastian Strauss -
there was once a weight
to everything, feet in the sacred
waters of the Euphrates
became encased in shoes
made from cork and leather,
bark gave way to wooden canoes,
The solidity of regimes
built into everything built.
Into the dreams
that carried us into the earth;
visions of thick waters, coins
for anchors, wells dug, the hearth,
even into the depths of myth. Then
we moved from the age of weight
to a search for its absence -
like moving out of the shadow of sticks
and stones
to bronze implements
and more productive wars.
Once we felt the embrace,
connected ourselves
with dirt, felt our place
even as we stared
up into the stars and wondered;
but once the first giant step kissed the lack
of weight a chain reaction occurred.
As children then, behind the last
heavy wooden desks, the stain of chalk
and scratch of slate behind us, we watched
snowy television sets, Oedipus hearts
jealous of astronauts bouncing where none
could hope to go - the first giant step;
dinosaurs staring at the warm blood
of a funny, milky creature, would one day
leave their weight behind
in a museum for eyes to devour
while we constructed a brave new world
as light as death.
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