The simplicity of rockets

 The simplicity of rockets


Imagine a vehicle

that could launch people 

on a journey to the moon

or to Mars

standing tall

and pointing at the stars

a device constructed by

thousands of people

and thousands of machines


Imagine a tree

standing tall

in a valley 

carved by water

cascading from the mountains

from glaciers and melting snow

gathering energy from the sun

thousands of leaves

gathering carbon and

returning water and oxygen 

to the air that

so many creatures breathe 


Imagine the thousands of rockets

thousands of years from now

long abandoned

except as a relics

of forgotten civilizations

gradually decaying 

in their silos

or on their 

crumbling launching pads


Imagine a thousand million trees

the ancestors of which

populated that valley 

where the river flowed

now the basis of

a remarkably complex ecosystem 

supporting a cornucopia of life

above and below the soil

trees evolving from a process

which began more than

three billion years ago


We too are a product 

of this nature


It is not until

we comprehend

the simplicity of rockets

that we will have reason 

to be proud


Aubrey Lieberman

2/28/25






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