“Give me a challenge and I’ll meet it with joy”

Go back like a dog to where you put it,
a day for mourning and remembering,
Nancy and I

are pained to the core
the nation: this is truly a national loss.

Say something,
schoolchildren
of America
it’s hard to dazzle us,
to ‘slip the surly bonds
of earth and touch the face of God:’

The crew
served all of us
pulling us

into the future: crying, stumbling, singing
I saw London, I saw France

The crew
we will never forget them
nor the last time
Your loved ones
that ‘lived by the sea, died on it, and were buried in it’