by Shawn E Hamilton

Created on: April 11, 2011   Last Updated: September 13, 2011

The Dark Side of the Moon   


What they found there astonished them,
Those brave men with their golf clubs and fake flags.
They stood stunned
Among empty Tang jars and space stick wrappers,
StarsNstripes waving in no breeze,
Confused in their aluminum foil suits.
They had taken a small step,
But stepping onto a footprint,
Recoiled and took a giant leap
Backwards for mankind.

What they found there amazed them,
Those rugged pilots¾All-American jocks
Strapping Top Gun youth with the Right Stuff.
They stood there slack-jawed, gaping at artifice
On the edge of the dark side
Of the Moon.

What they found there
Transfixed them, fixed them good.
Doomed to private secrecy and public alcoholism,
Some contemplated suicide.
These traveling salesmen for NASA
Thought they had arrived at an empty dark house,
When suddenly people they’d known on Earth
Jumped out
With party hats and streamers, shouting,
“Surprise!”

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