Hatred. Poverty. Discrimination.
A storm that’s tearing down your house and rocking the foundation.

“This too shall pass.”

I hate to know it, but life is more than an aphorism.
One thousand years ago they didn’t know that the ship would land here.

That Great Red Spot won’t stop
And the red clouds make it quite clear.

Across the surface we see it prove relentless.
You can’t wait out the storm. Silence is not progress.

So if you love your babies, give them the right gear
To brave the climate
Because if one storm passes, the next is just behind it.

The leaves will soon turn
shades of auburn
for the twenty fourth time
in my life.
Darkness descends earlier now
than it did only a week ago.
I understand autumn
but I do not find comfort in that.
Some days you can feel her
clinging desperately
to the warmth of the sun
but she was not granted
that power.

The days roll on
and slowly her grip is gone.
Death prevails through the lands
planting frost where life once grew.
The birds don't quite sing like they used to.

But earth read the book of living
and knows when the magnolias must bloom.
I sit with her, my mother earth,
in hope she will one day
impart me her wisdom.
For I cling desperately to the sunshine
when I am blessed its presence,
but I too was not granted that power.
I know no winter,
only the storms of Jupiter
and I fear one day he will take me
before I learn
when my magnolias must bloom.

this earthly plane was one i wasn't too fond of
i wanted to go to jupiter
or somewhere like it
big and full of orange like my favorite sunsets
Europa is my favorite moon
because it reminds me of europe
it reminds me of anywhere but here
it reminds me of away
it reminds me of gone
have you ever wanted to be so far away,
so stretched thin
to the point of no return?
it's an earthly human feeling that i'm not too fond of
i'd like to be an alien
not the green or the gray ones with big heads and thin bodies
but the ones who know things
more things
things that Plato knew
and things that Sylvia Plath knew
and Goethe, and Einstein, and Martin Luther King Jr., and every woman on the planet
I want to know things
things no one knows
and i can't do that here!
i need to be in jupiter or a heaven of sorts
because the fire of this hell burns my not only my tears
but my passion dry

Rise!* Oh, Mighty Jupiter;
Our Father now forgotten.
Come claim your rightful reverence.
Your pagan pedigree misgotten.

You were once our Shining Father;
Great King of all the Sky.
But you allowed your world to set
so a new Son could arise.

Zeus once ruled before you, and
Jesus became your heir.
Today not many realize
how we got from here to there.

I have considered for some moments
how our thoughts of god do change.
Plural notions of so long ago,
today can seem so strange.

We like to think we've come so far,
since those pagan days of yore.
Have we abandoned superstition
or just embraced it even more?

It was millennia ago
that Zeus ruled Mount Olympus.
He, their leader, more than father,
often beaten by hubris.

The Greeks, they worshiped leaders,
seeking standing in this forum.
Such desires, democratic
became their gods that ruled before them.

As the centuries moved on,
your new Latin home was Roma.
Your title too, transformed
to reflect a new persona.

To Zeus we added "Father",
or in Latin, pater, we prefer.
So Zeus, becomes Zeus-pater,
Zupater, then Jupiter.

Our names for gods reveal
exactly how they fill our needs.
Over time our needs evolve
and so a new name supersedes.

As Rome aged, it developed  
a need to know god as a man.
To be one of his number.
To see themselves as of his clan.

This zeus, he can be talked to,
can be greeted and be known.
They "Hail Zeus" as HeyZeus.
And now its Jesus on the Throne.

Through such inquests we can see
the needs Gods fill evolving,
from cold, covetous Kings
to a begotten Son absolving.

We imagine in the Heavens
things to help us understand,
how a universe so endless
can be the realm alone of man.

When the storm in your eye,
bends the marbled surface,
and rains fury on what beneath,
might be nothing but hot air,

remember Jupiter,

the majestic, heavenly titan,
failed to become a star.
No matter how hot his fury swells,
he remains a magnitude less than the Sun.

Remember Jupiter,

the jolly, red giant,
making enough light of his anger,
to glow while farther than the sun,
without being a star,
and his time being not nearly so different,
from yours.

Standing on a launchpad
I was readied for a push
Countdown had begun
The trajectory was set
And I was prepared,
For a journey unmade

The gush of fire beneath
Had ****** me up
And as the fuel burned,
I moved ahead
Against the friction
Of atmosphere
Against the Earth's
Gravity
Into the
Stratosphere.

I left behind
The ball of life
Traveled beyond,
Much beyond
into the abyss of
Space

I surpassed the red Mars
Towards the Giant.
Jupiter!
That's where I was headed,
A journey that was
Never before made.

Through the dark of
Space
Through the unseen
Light
Traveling in
Time
Traversing the
Unknown
I finally touched
The ****** soil,
Of Jupiter.

A journey that was
Never before made,
Is now, a journey
Accomplished.