Michelangelo's Astronaut ( for Jason )

Overture:

He made the transfer with a speed undefined
From the mountain to the capsule, to capture his prize
A blackness beyond dark, his eyes held a mystery
But the mystery got clearer as I looked in his eyes.

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His cradle at birth was filled with sensation
An object prepared for complete transformation
For this gift cast in flesh from divine intervention
Was life’s chemical moment for free will and intention

His stillness reverbed under swaddling white
Where the garment he wore prepared him for flight
Without any motion, or wave of the hand
He promised a journey to a faraway land

He pointed his finger, up toward the stars
Suggesting “hold tightly!” onto gravity’s bars
As the countdown began from the number of seven
He promised we’d reach, his Sistine in heaven

The touch that he sought, in a galaxy far
Meant travel at risk, from the points on a star
But the trust he displayed from the birth he was given
Came forth with a burst; a child who is driven.