Texas Travelers

Laurence Musgrove Laurence Musgrove

Icelandic Moon Walk

Chip Dameron

July 6, 2025

Drive off the Ring Road

in a Super Jeep outfitted

with massive tires and weave

across a rocky lava field

dotted with clumps of moss.

Ease onto a black glacier,

darkened from volcanic ash,

and wander across its surface,

rough and rumpled from eons

of eruptions. Look closely,

and you might get a glimpse

of a snow-white Arctic fox.


It’s not surprising that NASA

sent dozens of astronauts here

sixty years ago to prepare

for landings on the moon.

The lava fields and glaciers

simulate the moon’s volcanic

conditions much better than

anywhere else on the planet.

One wonders if Neil Armstrong

found a patch of fluffy thick moss,

lay down, and dreamed about

taking the first step on the moon.


Chip Dameron’s latest book, Relatively Speaking, is a shared collection with Betsy Joseph. A member of the Texas Institute of Letters, he’s also been a Dobie Paisano fellow.


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