(Editor’s note: Now that “Star Trek’s” William Shatner has boldly gone where no one – or at least no 90 year old – has gone before, aboard one of Jeff Bezos’ rockets, we thought you’d enjoy this work by Frank Pagani, who when he’s not doing public relations, writes poetry)
OCTOBER 13, 2021
By Frank Pagani
Today, I am thinking of Hemingway’s short story—
“Big Two-Hearted River Part II”—
about Nick, the young man who goes
trout fishing one unforgettably brilliant morning,
alone, but totally with nature.
“The river was clear and smoothly fast in the early morning.
He was excited by the early morning and the river.”
I’m also thinking about Bill Shatner
and how bereft of Mother Nature
his thrill ride was today as it surely
was for Jeff Bezos before him.
In the span of just a few minutes,
did he glimpse the massive Alisal Fire in Santa Barbara
or any other wildfires for that matter
and imagine them to be the stuff that dreams
are made of on the Starship Enterprise?
I’m thinking about
what comes next for Mother Earth after these
hollow, short-lived flights.
I wonder if the meadows and river like those
Nick languorously enjoyed one unforgettably brilliant morning
will still be teeming with grasshoppers