Nothing prepares you for the starkness. - Buzz Aldrin

The horizon cringes

from that heavy black.

Craters cast shadow

like, What might be missing?

Boulders the size of small cars like

What might be too much?

When earth rises, I imagine all the girls

down there standing on scales, plucking

eyebrows, stuffing bras. I can’t see from here

my daughter

watching a show about a necessary

makeover. Lifting her shirt

to the mirror, she squeezes the skin of her

beautiful pale belly.

Mr Aldrin, I hear you read from Genesis

up here. I didn’t have to

bring that book. They carved the story of that hijacked

apple into my brain years ago. And oxygen?

What woman needs it? We have grown

so comfortable holding our breath.

Thoughts from my Time on the Moon