Poem: High, Higher, Highest

High, High­er, Highest
Samuel Hazo
Viewed from space, the world’s
impersonal.
                     France appears,
but no Frenchmen.
                                          Then Germany,
with­out one German.
                                                    Regardless,
the rich­est man on earth
pays three hun­dred thousand
for a ten-minute flight by rocket
at three thou­sand miles per hour
to see every­thing below
from six­ty-two miles straight up.
He’s mak­ing busi­ness plans
for space, begin­ning with Mars
and the moon.
                             There’s ample
prece­dent to show how profit
motivates.
                   After we mapped
the earth as we imag­ined it,
we matched what we imagined
with the world as it would look
when pho­tographed from space.
We did the same with rivers,
lakes and seas.
                             We kept
the orig­i­nal names unchanged
for every­thing we saw
as far as we could fly.
From seashores to the stratosphere
the world was seen as property
that men could bar­gain for and buy.
We see it now the same
while prof­i­teers debate how best
to adver­tise and sell the sky.

Cyn is Rick's wife, Katie's Mom, and Esther & Oliver's Mémé. She's also a professional geek, avid reader, fledgling coder, enthusiastic gamer (TTRPGs), occasional singer, and devoted stitcher.
Posts created 4259

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Posts

Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel.

Back To Top