Expedition To Amy

This weekend the bright star near the Moon
is the planet Mars. Here, where I live,
Mars and the Moon are high in the east
early, around eight o’clock at night.

I wonder if, wherever she’s at,
Amy Winehouse will look at the sky
and wonder what’s the name of the star
so bright so close to the bright full moon?

Mars is close, to the Moon and to us.
At opposition Mars is only
about sixty million miles away,
about as close as it ever gets.

I wonder if Amy Winehouse knows
anybody with a telescope?
Mars is so close even a small scope
shows the planet as an orange disk.

Although Mars is close it still takes light
from the planet about five minutes
to travel the sixty million miles
from out there to us down here on Earth.

I don’t believe, wherever she’s at,
Amy Winehouse will look at the sky
and wonder what’s the name of the star
so bright so close to the bright full Moon.

I’ve seen pictures of Amy Winehouse
but I suspect wherever she’s at
it takes light longer than five minutes
to get from her to us here on Earth.

I don’t believe NASA has spacecraft
that could transport an expedition
to Amy Winehouse. Some distances
cannot be crossed by technology.

If somehow scientists could travel
to wherever Amy Winehouse is
and bring her back to us here on Earth
I wonder if she could breath our air?

And could we communicate with her?
Would anyone know what she eats, drinks?
And I bet she would be lonely here,
stuck on Earth, lost among us humans.

And you know in science fiction films
when the astronauts bring something back
almost always the thing they bring back
turns out to be some kind of monster.

If the sky here is clear this weekend
I’ll probably take a look at Mars
through my little telescope. I hope
Amy Winehouse sees something cool, too.

I hope Amy Winehouse is happy
but that’s an expedition I hope
I am never an astronaut on.
Some distances are terrifying.

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