Red Holiday

Red Holiday

We worried the Martians
right up to the time we
couldn’t spend another day
hovering the red planet

and then the rocket rocked too much

I feared black weather was under
our seats and when the beers
arrived, I was ready for feathers—

but all afternoon we ate and watched
Earth from the hatch and planned
the red eye

rain again so much rain out of season

our side of the cosmos soggy with summer
almost gone and everyone had
a weather cliché, always do

what I dreamed in my red nap
was restful enough—

you drank your beer
and I drank mine,
and then wanted ice cream,

I was afraid my straps would pop
so I worried my cold feet
then we landed
and after we landed 
we knew where we had been 
and wanted to go there again.