Spaceship Earth by Catherine Pierce

EPCOT

We’ve FastPassed it, that great golf ball just inside
the gates, so my son and I don’t have to wait long
to tour all of human time. Inside, Phoenicians
invent the alphabet; Romans carry news 

from chariots. The Library of Alexandria
burns, but only for 15 seconds and we’re on
to the monastery, where animatronic monks
copy manuscripts. One monk has fallen

asleep on his desk. It’s so peaceful inside
the dark globe, track softly thudding
beneath us, and I thrill as we pass marvel
after marvel. O beloved papyrus! O Gutenberg! 

O telegraph! O mannequin children TV-rapt
as Neil Armstrong bounds and proclaims!
The music swells and I’m weepy in the dark.
Then we’re in a garage where a man builds 

a desktop computer. The narrator’s voice
says here we are. Says this like she’s announcing
a victory. Outside thousands of people crowd
the park’s entrance, waiting to open their bags 

and show there’s no violence inside. Outside
it’s 88 degrees in February. In the ride’s
last moments, our car swivels backward
and we fall, slowly, slowly, down a tunnel of stars. 

Catherine Pierce‘s most recent book is The Tornado Is the World (Saturnalia 2016); her new book, Danger Days, is forthcoming in 2020. A 2019 NEA Fellow and Pushcart Prize winner, she teaches at Mississippi State University.