[ WP ] `` At first they came back with nothing , and then they did n't come back at all . ''

Oh Yukon gold of the glittering expanse, 
 a miner's Big Rock Candy Mountain, 
 there for the stars to watch -- 
 an asteroid belt now cast as fortune's fountain. 
 
 A slingshot of promise, 
 a trip to the comets: 
 Tethered to a carbon-fiber dream 
 and edging toward that heavenly seam, 
 they boarded vessels and rockets, 
 we kissed rabbit feet and lockets, 
 we cried to any gods and goddesses 
 for providence, for the odds of it. 
 
 But the landing gear proved stiff, 
 so they prepared for the homeward trip. 
 `` There's no shame in dying, 
 but this is n't worth trying.'' 
 
 We sigh, we call it a worthy 
 but expensive test, 
 a trip up the beanstalk 
 to glimpse the giant's best. 
 
 But a spaceship loaded with heavenly treasure 
 lists and tumbles as though death were its pleasure. 
 From our living rooms we watched the scratch in the sky, 
 the line of smoke marking a noble dream die. 
 
 But we devised new vessels and ships with results unchanged. 
 We dared again into the heavens with heart-bound pains. 
 Another mission, another line of empty coffins -- 
 but promise of fortune is a promise that beckons often. 
 
 And in the silvering reds of sunset, 
 we buried the memory of my brother, 
 an asteroid miner, ambitious and brave. 
 While that old Yukon prayer filled his grave. 
 
 Calm and through tears, 
 my father whispered, 
 looking broken, 
 but standing tall: 
 `` At first they came 
 back with nothing, 
 and then they did n't 
 come back at all.''
