Rocket Man

My father was a rocket man

He often went to Jupiter or Mercury, to Venus or to Mars

My mother and I would watch the sky

And wonder if a falling star

Was a ship becoming ashes with a rocket man inside

My mother and I

Never went out

Unless the sky was cloudy or the sun was blotted out

Or to escape the pain

We only went out when it rained

My father was a rocket man

He loved the world beyond the world, the sky beyond the sky

And on my mother's face, as lonely as the world in space

I could read the silent cry

That if my father fell into a star

We must not look upon that star again

My mother and I

Never went out

Unless the sky was cloudy or the sun was blotted out

Or to escape the pain

We only went out when it rained

Tears are often jewel-like

My mother's went unnoticed by my father, for his jewels were the stars

And in my father's eyes I knew he had to find

In the sanctity of distance something brighter than a star

One day they told us the sun had flared and taken him inside

My mother and I

Never went out

Unless the sky was cloudy or the sun was blotted out

Or to escape the pain

We only went out when it rained