Melting Snow

Earth Day 2017: Looking Down on Earth from Space

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Recycling the Words  (E) In this age of dwindling resources #2119299 by Prosperous Snow celebrating

The "Blogging Circle of Friends "  prompt for DAY 1619
April 22 is Earth Day. Pick out something you like about the Earth and write a poem, story, or article about it.

Looking Down on Earth from Space

Looking down upon Earth
from the International Space Station
I see clouds,
mountains,
rivers,
the great barrier reef,
the lights of cities at night,
(sometimes) the Great Wall of China,
and (dimly) a few other human created artifacts.

The view of the planet differs
when I move from low to high Earth orbit,
but the one things that stands out in both orbits
is the lack of man-made boundaries.

Political borders,
that show up so brightly
on plastic globes
or flat maps,
are invisible
when Earth is viewed
from interplanetary space.

When I look down on Earth,
I see the planet
as a single country
floating in a dark
and invisible ocean.