Highways and Byways: Infatuation (Cassini’s Last Pass)

By Maik Strosahl

My nephew recently posted a photo purporting to be the last shot taken by the Cassini spacecraft before it plummeted into Saturn in 2017. While the image was beautiful, it turned out to be an artist’s rendering that was released by NASA.

    It led me to dig into a series of photos from the last batch received from Cassini. What caught me was just a simple descending moon shot. Nothing spectacular, just a moment of Enceladus’ orbit. The mythical giant just a small rock compared to Saturn.

    And what of the photographer? Its two-decade moment didn’t cause a wobble before it disappeared into the atmosphere and broke apart.
    Isn’t that just like our brief time here? Our lives, our loves…?

Infatuation (Cassini’s Last Pass)

Before I go,
I wanted you to see
Enceladus
one more time
bidding farewell in his own way
and would if I
could return
for yet another go round,

one more lifetime,
one more chance

to dive though your halo,
to get lost in orbit as
another satellite caught,
another moon captured
in your forever,

but forever is never
long enough.

Tomorrow,
you will go on,
doing your hula-hoop dance
with your frozen friends
as I graze and
burn off in your atmosphere,

a trajectory you barely noticed,
a fly-by not worth
swatting away.

Copyright © 2021 by Maik Strosahl Michael E. Strosahl has focused on poetry for over twenty years, during which time he served a term as President of the Poetry Society of Indiana. He relocated to Jefferson City, Missouri, in 2018 and currently co-hosts a writers group there.