One Wednesday a NASA rocket was launched

from near Santa Barbara USA.

Its mission was to try to nudge a hapless

asteroid called Dimorphos – debris

from the Big Bang or a useless bit of kit

left on the Great Clockmaker’s untidy

work bench – out of its orbit ten months later.

This multi-million dollar experiment

was to see if humans have the know-how

to stop an asteroid destroying the Earth.

The same day thirty one men, women

and children drowned in the English Channel –

closer to the English coast than the French –

crossing the sea for a better life, seeking

asylum and refuge from havoc, mayhem,

migrating like humans have for epochs,

the want and the need part of our DNA.

Some tweeted, texted, messaged their distress.

Relatives’ grief was broadcast on the news.

What creatures we are! Unwilling to prevent

wars or show minimal kindness to strangers

in extremis, but capable of diverting

a large lump of rock – more than six million miles

away – from the orbit it has followed

since shortly after the beginning of time!