Debits and Credits

I’m ambivalent about space
exploration the way I’m
ambivalent about scrambled

eggs. They both exist and
always will, but they twist
my lips

downward. I admit to admiration:
moon landings, then a gap,
then landscapes from

Mars, looking like the Painted
Desert only with a sky
the color of Dijon

mustard. Explorers all, we
salute the singular, but what
is the

cost. When hurricanes spawn floods,
tornados unzip homes, crush cars,
and forests

torch? Climate change reigns and
we bicker over warming oceans
and Mars Rover and scrambled

eggs. It’s not really a zero
sum game. Or is it?

Gary D. Grossman

Mid-Atlantic Review

6 December 2024