Space Vision

Space Vision

"On October 24, 1946, a V-2 was launched from the [White Sands] Missile Range while a mounted 35mm movie camera captured images... The grainy photo was... our first view of Earth from above the atmosphere." —Jason Major, Universe Today

Yes, we climbed
above the ocean talking

and the clouds
emptied their pockets

when we swapped out the war
head for a camera

in that rocket of destruction
barreling through

unmapped atmosphere
where our shutter

registered Earth's curvature
in the company of a savage bend.

After the heat shield's return
to the desert sands,

I soaked photo paper.
Over the tray, my eyeballs

dropped into a virgin sight
splayed on an ultrasound screen:

an unborn revealed
within our collective womb.