impassioned dreams can endure on—to ferry us
beyond rolling shores of an ordinary reality
dreams are typically inane—a few petrifying
but some vapors of midnight draw us in—
then detonate us outwards into angelic spheres
far beyond defiant noises of confusion or contention

I always tear up in profound emotion
when I see or hear the blazing torches
of energy trailing an intrepid rocket launch
gracefully escaping our taut earthen existence
(often wound up in feuds fueled by political rubrics)
seeping into stellar freedoms of another dream

aided by brave innovators whose lives and ideas
continue to flood us assiduously—
with all their enigmatic spaces of science
and foaming dimensions of quantum time
we progressively but serenely soar upward
while dim corridors of compacting walls
ensnare angry devotees of garish skeptics
who bemoan any liberty of scientific outreach

my flowing tears of everlasting hope
long for the rescues veiled in uncharted discovery
or a newer province to endeavor beyond
to learn greener things about us—
to imbibe all the oozing emulsions of thinking—
as nourishments far greater than the sums
of all our proud glory and follies of yesterday

and when the rockets of unified minds lift off—
all the powers of physics, chemistry, and thought
are compressed into practical bottles of cosmic use
our oxidations of carbon and sound reason—
squelched within the expanding throats
of a white-hot energetic motor
explode over a million times per second

departing strings of white contrails arch up
into long screeching rivers of smoke—
to inspire another journey onward
to unearth another unique story
or to reach an authentic—loving hand
who also seeks us in a vaporous pathway
to secreted lands of shared discovery

tiny dreams will always persist—to bed us down
into cozy pods of an easy escape
but loftier hopes captivate us and thrust us up
beyond every other dark cloud of doubt
to fearlessly explore distant stars of light
rising suns beyond our comfortable stations
whirling in realms—we scarcely comprehend

and core to every crystalized dream of ascension—
I firmly believe that we are privileged
to sway in merciful branches of a heavenly family
bound in a divinity of intergalactic purpose
with parents who dream big—and push us all—
to bravely soar—onward and upward
into a sky of resolute realities of sacred purpose

where we learn to care for countless siblings
who may be lost in dark vacuums of nothingness
trapped in places—we dared not venture
fixed in shapes—we risked not touch
arrayed in colors—we often ignored
traveling in lifestyles—we did not understand
and speaking in voices—we failed to hear

it is mind-boggling—to fully fathom forgiveness
and how much we acquire as we love others
as our dreams grow into consummate truth
and as we stream our lavender universe of thought
intelligence will flow on—patiently waiting
to be realized, absorbed, then recycled—
by countless travelers on silken roads of discovery

then—as we soar home to a kind and final family—
we will all embrace aliens—who are just like us