New Horizons

The New Horizons space probe is the size
of my parents’ four-poster bed.

and is speeding away from the earth
at 31,000 miles per hour.

It is almost out of fuel
and cannot slow down.

It has used the gravitational pull of Jupiter
to slingshot deeper into space.

Now it has reached Pluto
near the edge of our solar system.

It will escape our sun’s pull
and never return.

Many folks my age and older
would agree that time goes by faster

the older we get. Children are growing
at alarming rates, just as our parents foretold.

I am attending more funerals and taking
copious trips to the bathroom.

The toys I played with as a child
are in museums. Last year’s videos

appear grainy and out of sync.
When, I wonder, did I pass Jupiter?

 

 

About the Poet:
Norman Minnick’s second collection of poems is entitled Folly. He is the editor of Between Water and Song: New Poets for the Twenty-First Century (White Pine Press) and Work Toward Knowing: Beginning with Blake by Jim Watt (Kinchafoonee Creek Press).

 

 

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