In the deepest forms of sorrow I saw,

Between blinding lights and the glimmer of artificial sunlight,

The waving hands of the children,

The waving hands of all that was dear.

They waved in unison as they disappeared in the fog of my helmet,

Vanished through the blur of my teary eyes.

The strangest act of courage is to sometimes say goodbye while being

lifted vertically upward into a blast through space and time,

The sudden extraction of all that once surrounded you,

That once surrounded me,

Perished without weaning.

Vertically upward in the elevator of space.

The transition from artificial light to glimmers of the stars as they danced,

The sudden beauty reflected on my helmet,

You could almost hear them sing in this vacuum.

I could almost hear them sing,

This absence of everything,

The flush of thoughts out into the empty playground.

——————-

You have arrived

The strangest feeling shook me awake,

The voice that I longed for came at last through my helmet,

I expected nothing,

I expected everything,

The joy came as fast as it went,

The ship’s door opened,

The loneliness of space struck me again,

As I stared into Planet RR10.

——————-

I cannot inhabit you, I thought,

I cannot breathe on you,

You do not treat me well.

The seas that exist around you lead to nothing but death and more despair.

It was a mistake,

To think that a planet so distant can replicate what Home used to be,

You mistook me for a fool, I shout, at nothing. Yet everything.

——————-

Step closer, the helmet said, and you shall see.

There it was encased in all that is beautiful,

The tree.

The tree on planet RR10.

The branches that seemed to last forever,

The waving children looking back at me.