Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Atlantis

Atlantis

I can still see my mother's eyes light up at the word,

Atlantis

A mythical place,
a mysterious story,
a continent,
was it more advanced than ours?

A place where peace
(was it peaceful?)
was established by sensible
(were they?)
Humans.

A place where utopia was found,
did it teeter on the edge?
Was it doomed for failure
or was it just
coincidence,
that cataclysm that sunk the
perfect civilization?

When we look for
Atlantis,
Do we really want to finally find it?
Was it meant to always be a myth we tell ourselves?
That peaceful utopias
can never be truly found?

When we name a ship
Atlantis,
did we ever think that it would be a mothballed exhibit
at the space museum
that costs 15 bucks and parking to show your kid
what a special thing this was?

When the future travelers of the universe
find
Atlantis,
the ship
and scrape away the dirt
covering the words,
ATLANTIS,
Will they wonder
What these Humanoids thought when they named
a ship for a lost continent?

Or will they merely ho hum at the early human space travel
keeping within the gravitational pull of the Earth,
still barely scratching the space exploration,
doing more to explore
with our unmanned crafts
and the Hubble camera.

Atlantis, where are you?
My Mother was there once,
in another time and place,
I saw it in her eyes.

2 comments:

  1. Did it exist? Did it not exist? We may never know. But isn't wonderful that the thought of it could bring light to your mother's eyes.
    Judy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Absolutely, Judy. I am glad you can see this. mary

    ReplyDelete

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