Some Madness There

^{It’s only fully modern humans who start this thing of venturing out on the ocean where you don’t see land. Part of that is technology, of course; you have to have ships to do it. But there is also, I like to say, some madness there. —Svante Paäbo from “The Madness Gene”}

They must run, these soft creatures
we nurse and lullaby. Must wriggle
across the dog, up the shelves,
under the fence. It’s not enough,

never far enough. They flock to where
ground softens into waves, into riptides.
There! they say, pointing to the imaginary
line where sky and sea meet. There!

they say to pocks on the moon. There!
to the dim disk of Mars. “Here”
is where they need to leave more than
“there” is where to go. Often they ask,

What will we find? Not as often do
they ask why they must flee
the known, the home, the family
who stays behind and waves.

That’s one thing we’re good for, we
families: It’s our job to wave.