Poem of the Moment

Space Station

You don’t wake up certain
or ready
or healed
or healthy.

You peek through a telescope
and discover life beyond your own.
Crack the space station door by degrees,
not all at once, and hear from those same friends

who took two steps back
realize that every story has a dark side,
that it was less you, more them, as their spectrum
fast-cools from burgundy to blue.

A little more, open the door wider every day
to gingerly test the atmosphere with a toe,
detect the rising of a red-hot sun
where earlier clouds weighed you down

and suddenly ta-daa! Shift solid to gas
your shoulders loosen
you sleep peacefully
you’re ready to untether.

~ Shannon Kernaghan