Commiserating up here

Remember when we were kids

and we used to look up at the sky and say

when I am older I am going to go to space

when I am older I am going to go to the moon

when I am older I am going to go to Mars

when I am older I am going to go to Jupiter

when I am older I am going to go to some galaxy past ours

and we said all of these things

thinking

they were good things,

thinking

we would be doing our whole world

a service

by exploring where none of us have gone before—

where we believed

and wanted to believe

and wanted to think we believed

no one had gone before.

We were just kids

dreaming

and if I could go back then

I wouldn’t change anything

I don’t think.

You never want to rob the youth of their youth,

and you never want to poison innocent dreams

with a fatal dose reality.

There is so much we know now

out here on the fringe of it all

that we don’t even want adults back home to know about,

let alone all those kids

who, just like we did,

are still dreaming,

still trying to one-up each other with bigger ideas,

still trying to show each other up by pretending to know 

more about something no one knows anything about,

still trying to make up stories about where a beam of light comes from

and how old a star is 

and how far away a made-up galaxy might be,

still saying we found a meteorite in the backyard

but our uncle has it right now and we aren’t sure when

he’s bringing it back.

Remember those times, huh?

Those days sure beat the hell out of sitting in our seats,

orbiting Titan,

getting drunk on bootleg liquor,

finding ways to grow pot in space and smoke it in space

even when we know smoking can kill us a dozen ways up here.

Boy, weren’t those the days?

Just dreaming and not worrying.