Regrets Only

But there were promises of exploding stars,
thousand-light-year-sized walls of dust no one
had seen and on the trip out, views of Mars,
not to mention the chance of aliens. A done
deal. Every time we looked through the brochure,
we said we must go. Soon as the kids graduate
from college. There were times we were sure
we could leave them home alone. The wait
was long. But we saved our money and when
we could afford it, we booked a flight.
Dear ones, there’s no coming back. Back then
the world was never enough for us: nights,
days, all those sweet years. We knew it as soon
as we saw the old spinning blue planet, its dark moon.

—Jeanie Tomasko