The Mighty Mike Mcgee!
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Dear Neil Armstrong
I write this to you as she sleeps down the hall
I need answer I think only you might have
When you were a boy
And space was simple science fiction
When flying was merely a day dream
Between periods of history and physics
When gifts of moondust to the one you love
Could only be wrapped in your imagination
Before the world knew your name
Before it was a destination
What was the moon like from your back yard?
Your arm, strong, warm
And wrapped under her hair
Both of you gazing up from your front porch
Summers away from your distant journey
But upon landing on the moon
As the earth rose over the sea of tranquility---
did you look for her?
What was it like to see our planet
and know that everything you could be
all you could ever love and long for
was just floating before you?
Did you write her name in the dirt
when the cameras weren’t looking?
Surrounding both your initials with a heart
For alien life to study a million years from now
What is it like to love something so distant?
What words did you use to bring the moon back to her?
And what did you promise in the moon’s ear about the girl back home?
Can you teach me how to fall from the sky?
I ask you this not because I doubt your feat
I just want to know what it’s like to go somewhere No man had ever been
Just to find that she wasn’t there
To realize that your moonwalk
Couldn’t compare to the steps that lead to her
I now know that the flight home means more
Every July I think of you.
I imagine the summer of 1969
How lonely she must’ve felt while you were gone
You never went back to the moon
And I believe that’s because it doesn’t take rockets
To get you where you belong
I see that in this woman down the hall
And sometimes she seems so much further
But I’m ready for whatever steps I must take to get to her
I’ve seen so many skies
And the moon?
Well, it always looks the same
So I gotta say, Neil, that rock you landed on
Ain’t got shit on the rock she’s landed on
You walked around took samples and left
She’s built a fire
Cleaned up the place
And I hope she decides to stay
Because on this rock,
We can both breathe
Mr. Armstrong, I don’t have much
Many times have I upside down
But with these empty hands comes a heart
That is full more often than the moon
She’s becoming my world
Pulling me into orbit
And I now know I may never find life outside of hers
I want to give her
Everything
That I don’t have yet
So, yeah
For her,
I would go to the moon and back
But not without her
No, we’d claim the moon for each other with flags
Made from sheets down the hall
And I’d risk it all to kiss under the light of earth
The brightness of home
But I can do all of that more right here
Wherever she is
And when we gaze up
With her arms around me
I will not promise her gifts of moon dust
Or flights of fancy
Instead I will gladly give her all the earth she wants
In return for all the earth she is
The sound of her heartbeat and laughter
And all the time it takes to learn to fall from the sky
Down the hall
And right into love
Man I’d do it everyday
If I could just land next to her
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One small step for man
But she's one giant leap for my kind.
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Dear Neil Armstrong
I write this to you as she sleeps down the hall
I need answer I think only you might have
When you were a boy
And space was simple science fiction
When flying was merely a day dream
Between periods of history and physics
When gifts of moondust to the one you love
Could only be wrapped in your imagination
Before the world knew your name
Before it was a destination
What was the moon like from your back yard?
Your arm, strong, warm
And wrapped under her hair
Both of you gazing up from your front porch
Summers away from your distant journey
But upon landing on the moon
As the earth rose over the sea of tranquility---
did you look for her?
What was it like to see our planet
and know that everything you could be
all you could ever love and long for
was just floating before you?
Did you write her name in the dirt
when the cameras weren’t looking?
Surrounding both your initials with a heart
For alien life to study a million years from now
What is it like to love something so distant?
What words did you use to bring the moon back to her?
And what did you promise in the moon’s ear about the girl back home?
Can you teach me how to fall from the sky?
I ask you this not because I doubt your feat
I just want to know what it’s like to go somewhere No man had ever been
Just to find that she wasn’t there
To realize that your moonwalk
Couldn’t compare to the steps that lead to her
I now know that the flight home means more
Every July I think of you.
I imagine the summer of 1969
How lonely she must’ve felt while you were gone
You never went back to the moon
And I believe that’s because it doesn’t take rockets
To get you where you belong
I see that in this woman down the hall
And sometimes she seems so much further
But I’m ready for whatever steps I must take to get to her
I’ve seen so many skies
And the moon?
Well, it always looks the same
So I gotta say, Neil, that rock you landed on
Ain’t got shit on the rock she’s landed on
You walked around took samples and left
She’s built a fire
Cleaned up the place
And I hope she decides to stay
Because on this rock,
We can both breathe
Mr. Armstrong, I don’t have much
Many times have I upside down
But with these empty hands comes a heart
That is full more often than the moon
She’s becoming my world
Pulling me into orbit
And I now know I may never find life outside of hers
I want to give her
Everything
That I don’t have yet
So, yeah
For her,
I would go to the moon and back
But not without her
No, we’d claim the moon for each other with flags
Made from sheets down the hall
And I’d risk it all to kiss under the light of earth
The brightness of home
But I can do all of that more right here
Wherever she is
And when we gaze up
With her arms around me
I will not promise her gifts of moon dust
Or flights of fancy
Instead I will gladly give her all the earth she wants
In return for all the earth she is
The sound of her heartbeat and laughter
And all the time it takes to learn to fall from the sky
Down the hall
And right into love
Man I’d do it everyday
If I could just land next to her
5
4
3
2
1
One small step for man
But she's one giant leap for my kind.