SLAM!

"Invalid Item"   by A Guest Visitor

Walking back to the dorm on a blue, cloudless day,
sans transportation, damned transportation,
infernal shuttle bus left me on the curb again.
My fate was walking, better luck than others that day.
At least I had arms to carry books,
shoes to meet the pavement head on,
my own thoughts to propel me forward,
past the library, past the science building,
down Maple and up the stairs to the lobby,

Someone stopped me in passing,
"Mike, did you hear the news?
The shuttle exploded today,"
and I was astounded because
I'd just seen it twenty minutes earlier,
chugging away from the curb,
leaving me behind in its vapor trail.
Our shuttle? Explosion? When? Wouldn't I have heard it,
and how does a shuttle bus just explode like that?

Understanding escaped me, 'til the television news showed me,
a strange geyser of a cloud, white against the hard, blue sky;
the vapor trail of spent rocket fuel,
hurling pieces of spacecraft in a plume,
shooting off in seperate directions,
like the branches of a white-bark tree.

... and I hear the names of the astronauts,
over and over again.





Zoo - Salted and Roasted
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **