The Astronaut’s Wife

poem final

I longsufferingly confide you to the shadow
As I stare at the capsule slipping in orbit
Behind the chalky, round lamp inconstant, and I
Imagine you cradled in space, suckled by tubes,

Wordless as you curve back this way invisible,
The substance now of things hoped for later, not too
Much later, I hope, the evidence of things not
Seen, things seen soon, I hope against hope, and I wait

For your ricochet around, a seed I have sown
To come up greenly, but this winter night sky is
Blacker than any soil near Cape Canaveral,
And I wonder what you see on the other side,

Camouflaged from Earth, hidden from my telescope,
Muted from my ham radio. I refuse to

Ask if weightlessness tempts you away from me
To new missions further, further and further flung, if
The dark veil might snag, and you could stall mid-curve and
Plummet into a crater pockmarking night, but

Despite my clenched jaw, I still squint up, remember
Penelope, her wool tapestry woven and
Unwoven as her rogue Odysseus wandered,
And I look to the days’ dishes, diapers, wonder

What might be the point of work while you are out of
Sight — somewhere surely a Star Trek Circe offers
Her hospitality, turning spacemen to pigs
In space redundantly – but never out of mind.

(Photo Credit: NASA, Public Domain / Second Nature)

Other articles

Support Second Nature

Second Nature depends on the generous donations of readers like you.

Second Nature is published by the International Institute for the Study of Technology and Christianity (IISTC), a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to studying technology in light of the Christian tradition.

Your generous contributions make this work possible. Please consider donating today to help us continue this important work.

About the Contributor

Anne Babson

Anne Babson
Anne Babson's work has appeared in Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought, Christianity and Literature, Windhover, Dappled Things, The Penwood Review, and other journals of interest to Christians. She has organized literary readings, taught a writing workshop on writing poetry as a spiritual meditative practice and is currently teaching a course at a on how to write a Christian memoir. Her book, Poems Under Surveillance (2013), is published by Finishing Line Press and her first full-length collection, The White Trash Pantheon, will be published this year by Vox Press. 

Speak Your Mind

*

Support Second Nature

If you find value in the work we do at Second Nature, please consider making a modest donation. Every donation, no matter how small, is a huge encouragement to us in our work.