Arguments That Have Occurred On The Moon.
Part One: Apollo 11, On The Lunar Surface.
=================================================
There is a back story
which does not lend itself
to poetic form; for this
I am apologizing, now.
It is July 20th, 1969.
Armstrong has garbled
his line: One small step
for man, one giant leap
for mankind.
It was written differently;
One small step, you see,
for a man, not "man."
All the transcripts do it
this way: (a) man.
(a) las:
We did. It was the moon;
the moon, for Christ's sakes.
Walking on the moon!
[An Indian Chief said they'd
fall off. The moon, he warned,
was too small for one man
never mind an entire ship.]
In the flag planting ceremony,
Armstrong and Aldrin get jubilant
from weightlessness. Playing
in dirt; they sing out loud:
"I was walking on the moon one day,
in the merry old month of -"
Aldrin, I suppose, sings "May."
Armstrong; perhaps giddy, or on a roll
for flubbed lines; sings:
"December."
The first argument on the Moon
takes place soon thereafter:
"May." Snaps Aldrin. "It's May."
With that, the moon
was conquered.
-e.
