Rocket Man

My father was a rocket man
 He often went to Jupiter or Mercury, to Venus or to Mars
 My mother and I would watch the sky
 And wonder if a falling star
 Was a ship becoming ashes with a rocket man inside
 My mother and I
 Never went out
 Unless the sky was cloudy or the sun was blotted out
 Or to escape the pain
 We only went out when it rained
 My father was a rocket man
 He loved the world beyond the world, the sky beyond the sky
 And on my mother's face, as lonely as the world in space
 I could read the silent cry
 That if my father fell into a star
 We must not look upon that star again
 My mother and I
 Never went out
 Unless the sky was cloudy or the sun was blotted out
 Or to escape the pain
 We only went out when it rained
 Tears are often jewel-like
 My mother's went unnoticed by my father, for his jewels were the stars
 And in my father's eyes I knew he had to find
 In the sanctity of distance something brighter than a star
 One day they told us the sun had flared and taken him inside
 My mother and I
 Never went out
 Unless the sky was cloudy or the sun was blotted out
 Or to escape the pain
 We only went out when it rained