Poem: "Port Kennedy"
This poem came out of the July 3, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from aldersprig. It was sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. I had some very fond memories of gathering around the television set, when I was little, to watch the news about the latest milestone in space exploration. For this poem, I looked up the Kennedy assassination, the space race, and Slavic mythology.
Port Kennedy
Because a couple of NASA geeks decided
to watch the presidential parade from a grassy knoll,
and reported suspicious activity to the police,
the route was changed and they missed the parade.
By December of 1963, President Kennedy
and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
agreed to cooperate in space exploration,
planning a manned mission to the Moon.
In 1967, the Eagle landed
in the Sea of Tranquility:
"That's one small step for a man,
one giant leap for mankind."
Kennedy and Khrushchev toasted each other.
"What do you think we should do in the '70s?" Kennedy asked.
"We've gone to the Moon," said Khrushchev.
"Now let's go to Mars -- and this time, let's stay."
So they talked to their friends in the space program,
and got the current politicians to sign on.
In 1979, the Svarog touched the surface of Mars and began
unloading the parts of what would become Port Kennedy.