
Texas Travelers
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.