The Dark Side of the Moon     

What they found there astonished them,

Those brave men with their golf clubs and fake flags.

They stood stunned

Among empty Tang jars and space stick wrappers,

StarsNstripes waving in no breeze,

Confused in their aluminum foil suits.

They had taken a small step for man, but

Stepping onto a footprint,

Recoiled in shock,

Taking a giant leap backwards

For mankind.

What they found there

Amazed them,

Those rugged pilots

All-American jock-

Strapping Top Gun youth

With the Right Stuff.

They stood there slack-jawed,

Gaping at artifice

On the edge of the dark side

Of the Moon.

What they found there

Transfixed them,

Fixed them good.

Doomed to private secrecy

And public alcoholism,

Some contemplated suicide.

These traveling salesmen for NASA

Thought they had arrived at an empty dark house,

When suddenly people they’d known on Earth

Jumped out

With party hats and streamers, shouting,

“Surprise!”