One Tall Step for Man

With Christmas celebrations nigh,
Noel now happens in the sky.
Space Station International,
each orbit celebrates Noel.

Red stockings hung in outer space,
brave astronauts of varied race.
A bit of tinsel, garland, too,
united is this station crew.

A solar panel for a tree,
they pledge to Christmas merrily.
A touch of thruster for display,
commemorating Christmas Day.

Through terminator into night,
they pass a comet shining bright.
This time, a race in space arose,
with Rudolf leading by a nose.

Around the world in hours quick,
laser instead of candlestick.
Along with laser‘s narrow flow,
they use the Pleiades light show .

For it is country, it is man:
Europe, United states, Japan.
China, Russia, Canada, too;
from high in space, they’re all in view.

They give small gifts and drink eggnog,
(it is freeze-dried, packaged in Prague.)
But they do not object at all
from their encounter in free fall.

  (For that’s why weightlessness is true,
  for as they fall, the Earth falls, too!
  The curvature of Earth recedes
  such that an orbit just proceeds.)

In orbit arcing high above,
they offer up some Christmas love.
From docking port to gyroscope,
this station gives each man new hope.

Most languages have sounds well strung,
and all men taste, and taste with tongue.
So Merry Christmas, everyone:
Gun Tso Sun Tan’Gung Haw Sun!*


[Rhythm: 8]  (Lines: 40)
Writer’s Cramp; December 23, 2011

*Gun Tso Sun Tan’Gung Haw Sun ...”Merry Christmas”, in Chinese (Cantonese).