October Sky Poem by Robert Ronnow

The teacher dies having made her small contribution
to the colonization of other planets by motivating
a boy who would otherwise be a coal miner to become
a rocket engineer.
                       Throughout the nation teachers
are sending their prize pupils through the funnel
flask to produce technology from pure science.
The mother and father are good, disciplined, god-
fearing people who stand firm against dissolution
and chaos. They hold their clod of soil in place
and others do the same to create the landscape
of community.
                      Communities across the nation
and the world produce the many to support the few
who make the tools and do the math to colonize
the planets. Once the secret of warp speed is
discovered, expansion of the species is
limitless.
              Perhaps learning Sidewinder, playing it
imperfectly, is not a direct contribution to destiny.
What can I say. Please yourself. So
insignificant no one notices or cares. Yet
some stories may be told for centuries. Homer,
Shakespeare, Bible.
                               It takes constantly renewed
consciousness to persevere, retell the stories and
interpret lessons. You go, girl.