Voyage to an Asteroid
Bits of rock in space. What’s the attraction?
Gaspra, Vesta, Toutis and Anne Frank, trust
NASA to rate this a game-changing must.
Of course, my first uncensored reaction
Was why me? Where is the satisfaction
In the first to set foot on Eros just
After crashing into its shroud of dust.
Years training for this? A dire transaction.
And yet, I’m here, suited up, twenty two
Million miles from Earth, a morbid trample
Across barrenness, but with more to do
Than just take the occasional sample,
Like, as the only survivor of the crew,
Cursing the brains back home for example.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in That, Dunes Review, Poetry East and North Dakota Quarterly with work upcoming in Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Thin Air, Dalhousie Review and failbetter.