Michael Collins Orbiting the Moon

I'm the loneliest man in the world
Up here, away from anyone who ever lived.
Dark, circling the far side of the moon
Radio silence.
Somewhere below, Neil and Buzz are making history
Running around Eagle
Erecting a flag
Picking up rocks
Getting famous,
While I remain steady, listening, preparing,
Swaddled in Columbia
Sweating like a nervous bride.
If they don't return
I'll make the journey home
Alone,
A marked man for life,
The one who left them behind
Who should have fallen on his sword.
But if they survive,
Oh please let them live,
I'll be forgotten.
That's what I want,
To be disremembered,
An answer to a trivia question.
But I will always have this day,
Sequestered,
Brilliantly unaccompanied,
Unimaginably solitary,
Filled with patience and
Waiting for grief.
I beg you, my countrymen,
Rise forthwith,
So I can go on with my life, and
Fade into exquisite obscurity.

© Poem Fix http://www.poemfix.com 2012
Image: NASA