The Once Brave Men Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Groomed as if to be a pilot, and then lying there
Reclining as if triaged in the half light of a living room-
An astronaut who never got even higher than the arboretum
Of apple trees:
Not even quite high enough to see the goblins and the
Dragon approaching- and then to go down
From there, helped by the
Mexicans and their sad dreams and strong liquor-
Wayward like the naked changing rooms in an autumn
Falling down from the world- while everything else moving
Onwards only multiplying the complexity of the universe-
Fireworks resembling her features in the sky
The tourists frolic towards in their mobile cities,
While the insatiable mountain lion drags off the last of
The once brave men.