[X] My Assistant

[Stu]

Several people have written about how incredible the past week has been, with so much happening all across the solar system. I've been amazed by it too, so here's what came out...

ONE WEEK

In the blink of Time blue Terra took
To spin seven dizzying times,
Four robots’ patient silicon eyes
Gazed out on countless alien wonders.
On Mars, lame Spirit – prowling
Homeplate once more, ignoring
The ache in her hobbled wheel
To rejoice in the feel of Spring sunshine
Warming her chilled bones again -
Sighed to see dust devils dancing past
While bold Opportunity, Lewis
To Spirit’s Clark, parked near the edge
Of yet another crumbling Victorian cliff
And drank in the dazzling view.
Staring out over dunes of wind-rippled
Dust glowing amber in the purple dusk
Of another dying sol, looking up she saw
A fragile fleck of light arc high
Across the sky – an angel with glass and metal
Wings unfurled, hurled from Earth
To soar the solar system’s winds and land upon a comet.
But first, one special, shining day
Set aside to swoop towards then past Barsoom before
Returning to that endless dark.
And inbetween, for hitchhiking, fragile Philae,
For a single heartbeat, one fleeting glimpse of Mars
Through fair Rosetta’s rigging…
And there, beyond Ares, a sapphire star,
Lantern-bright – giant Jupiter, where,
Even as Rosetta paused in her pioneering
Trek a larger cousin craft was careening past,
Laughing with delight at the heady sight
Of the gas world’s curdled clouds
And ever-whirling moons - some carved
From cracked and mottled ice, others smothered
With blisters of bubbling, sulphurous bile -
All the while aware that each New Horizon flashing by
Was a mere dress rehearsal for her main
Performance eight years hence…
While deeper still in the endless ocean
Of the night Cassini’s bright
And eager eyes grew wide with disbelief as
A methane sea rolled into view
Close to cold Titan’s pole…

All those wonders seen in seven days.

And we shared every one.

© Stuart Atkinson 2007