Shuttle poem

The photo is from the Astronomy Picture of the Day, Sept.26th, 2012, and the prose poem below is by my friend and fellow artist, Ray Ridenour:

"There are particular pictures that appear that strike me as very alien, particularly when they also have the air of everyday.

A spaceship on the back of a plane, "retired" with two incredibly designed jets escorting. The quality of the photograph, and the usual crappy urban utopia in the background.

This would be an incredibly sharp and telling illustration by Freas, or Finlay in the forties or fifties, pointing towards the bizarreness of the future, and how strange could be the everyday.

And I can see myself, on the next page as a smaller illo, surrounded by story.

An old man sitting outside in a plastic transit booth, and looking at my personal info tablet, and shaking my head. On the tablet is this same picture but only slightly different, having been taken and loaded onto a social network seconds ago."