returning from the furthest bounds
                                           of what our forebears used to think of
                                      as a vast canal of milk that split their skies
                                  we feel an unexpected tugging at our hearts

       first we see the Sun
                   (the only one of all we've visited
                         that warrants that initial capital)
              then sweeping past the planetary orbits one by one,
                                we catch a glimpse
                           of Artemis        Uranus
                                       and most gloriously Saturn
                   till we reach our lunar starting point
                                                         the City of Copernicus

                   and from the dusty domes of home
                           we gaze up at the sphere from which it all began
                                         and yearn for an impossible return
                                  to Earth—that brown and amber globe
                         whose dully glowing surface
             we can never tread