We've come so far, thought the astronaut

as he swam around the capsule in his third week

and by accident kicked a god in the eye

--so far

that there's no difference anymore between up and down,

north and south, heavy and light.

And how, then, can we know righteousness.



So far. 

And weightless, in a sealed room

we chase the sunrises at high speed

and sicken with longing for a green stalk

or the heft of something in our hands. Lifting a stone. 



One night he saw that the Earth was like an open eye

that looked at him as gravely as the eye of a child

awakened in the middle of the night.