AIN’T BUT ONE WAY HEAVEN MAKES SENSE

or, Annie Pearl Smith Explains the U.S. Space Program

First of all, y’all fools. See what’s right in front of you,

then got folks telling you you ain’t seeing what you

just saw, other folks saying you saw more than you did.

Heaven is where my Jesus live. Just one way to get there,

no great big shiny ship can rise up on that sacred. They think

they gon’ look the Lord dead in his eye, asking questions

with nerve enough to wait for answers? No man gon’ reach

down, just scoop up moon, even if Mr. Cronkite say he did.

Them white men way out in a desert somewhere, stumbling

round in them blowed-up suits with movie stuff back a’ them,

laughing inside those glass heads. And colored folks aahing

and oohing like the number’s in and they got money comin.’

Chile, I sho’ didn’t raise you to be this much fool this fast.

People got to pray they way up. One small step ain’t enough.