The Challenger

Wiki says of the Challenger: "The crew compartment and many other vehicle fragments were eventually recovered from the ocean floor after a lengthy search and recovery operation. The exact timing of the death of the crew is unknown; several crew members are known to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft. The shuttle had no escape system, and the impact of the crew compartment with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable."

Often it is not the fall but the landing. In the case of that 73 second flight the fall is a real fall. In my poem it could be metaphorical. The result is the same.

The Challenger

So many of us
struggle to find some kind of
answer to the pain.
I guess that's because
pain hurts. We even take off
risking a failed seal
in some crucial seam
that we may rise above all
the grit and muddy
sludge that paints our wounds.
We train and learn and then teach
each other so much
but not enough to
stop the fall. We howl like wolves
howl at the bone moon.

‎January ‎20, ‎2014 10:29 AM