NOAA-15

You were launched
on a Wednesday in 1998
on a rocket called Titan
impossible heat
fuelling an ascent
into low earth orbit

Your launch site
named after an air force general
was 15 minutes’ drive
from the town ‘Lompoc’
or, for Chumash peoples
lumpo’o̥
‘in the cheeks’
where placenames
are bodies

When you entered space
I was nine
playing soccer
in Lompoc County
skinny legs
trying and failing
to curl a ball into a net

You fell silent
on a Tuesday in 2025,
impossible heat
raging in wildfires below
a night-moth beat the air
swirling particles

I know it’s ’empty’
but I listen to your frequency
cold static
filling a void
of recognition