Michele Wolf: “To Orbit The Earth”

	
To Orbit the Earth
	
The steel capsule, ridged and riveted—an oversize 
Can—rests suspended at street level, docked
Inside the Air and Space Museum’s entrance.
A bounty of white lilies mingled with spider mums, 
Placed yesterday, honors the trail of pilot John Glenn,
Dead at ninety-five. In ’62, even a second grader, 
Gripped by the grainy blastoff in black and white, 
Knew that the compact can was a bleak conveyance, 
That that helmeted dad, a human Superman laced up
In a silver suit, could at any moment be lost in flames.

And yet we launch from terra firma, compelled to behold 
The blue orb—its panorama of oceans as they curve
From continent to continent. It knocks you down, 
This vision, your ache to enfold the globe in your arms. 
It is that child who slips into the darkness, sounding 
A cry you cannot ease, although you circle round and round.