luther sang "love me like my back ain't got no bone"

that’s what I felt like when I got back from space. like I had no bone. no string to bounce back on. you can’t imagine what it’s like, all that time looking at the earth, all those rotations. eventually you wait for that one spot to come around. you pretend you can see it better than you can. you zero in, a street, a day in early fall, warm without being too hot. you walk down the street to her door, hear her coming down the front stairs. you think you know how she feels, but it’s been a long time. neither of you speaks. air or breath, or the solid hold in everything. how long did you wait to be part of that world again. they put you up there to see what was possible. the atrophy of earth and water without sound.