What Brought About All Our Doubts? Poem by Mark Heathcote

When we shutter the windows
and a force nine Beaufort gale picks up
and we all wonder what
we're all hiding from.

And a harvest moon turns red to gold
and then we all wonder
what brought about all our doubts.
And set the world asunder.

And why a stranded cosmonaut
came home and wasn't seen
sucking his chewed-nailed thumbs
looking through the empty chambers of a gun.

Is it because he's done more
than most mortals will ever do or ever can
and why didn't he pray when the storm came
and did, and did what it came to do.

Was this cosmonaut too cool to cry?
To be deployed in human disarray.
Or share a careless fear on his face
when a force nine Beaufort gale was taking place.