there was a river/in the black hills/that my favorite trail followed/with pine trees lining

its banks/of hard ground and towering rocks//i would beg my father/to walk that trail/

as far as it went/as many days as i could//and as we walked he would/recite poems from

It’s been five days,

But more than five days have been accomplished

It doesn’t feel like years have past,

Only that the beginning seems like years ago

It’s time to leave, to another world

But the world we leave will never leave us

i could break beneath the weight of

atmosphere.

these stars, balanced atop my head

are heavier than the sun,

lending their light

across a universe, a lifetime

to shatter my insides in their silence.

Hadfield gazed out the small glass window,

a portal to home.

Through the opening, an inspiring sight,

the bright sunlight shone.

Swirling colors, pushing to the horizon,

a palette of aquamarine,