On-board the Starship Terraheart, leaving Earth to explore
For I had a great plague from my home planet called loneliness
Fueling my mind to pursue the cosmos wilderness
Perhaps in vast space a great unknown beauty I shall find
This could surely help to ease my mind
Approaching Mars now, already what a journey it has been
The great red planet looms in my eye
But past our neighbour planet I must fly
Further and further from Earth and the Sun
For this journey has still just begun
The gas giant Jupiter looms large and supreme
It’s swirling clouds and raging storms clear to see
I gaze from afar over a biscuit and tea
As if even its Galilean moons weren’t large enough
Getting too close could be tough
Nevertheless I use its gravity to slingshot further into space
At a quite suitably rapid pace
I awoke from my sleep capsule around the hour of eleven
To see the other gas giant Saturn in my sights
It’s magnificent rings glimmering amongst the lights
I linger for some time, taking in the great beauty of it all
But I must once again move on, to answer the mysterious call
Over two more years have passed but I am alive
I have come to a stop somewhere just short of Uranus
Still yet to find anything that could make me famous
Do I continue on to the very edge of the Solar System and beyond?
The constant cold, empty quiet I am decreasingly fond
I have turned the ship around, eager to leave what cannot be seen
The drums beat loudly in my head
And persists even when I am in bed
I engaged the starship’s maximum power
Hurtling through space at seventy-two thousand kilometers an hour
I have long past Earth and even Venus, am I really fine?
I’m passing Mercury, only a month’s journey from the Sun
The enormous white hot ball glows ominously, the heat of which is not fun
I look towards the mighty star and once again engage full thrust
As my pounding head feels almost ready to bust
The blazing light ahead makes it almost impossible to see
The heat shields hold but struggle not to give way
Warning lights on the panels all light up to have their say
I realize the cruel irony of my journey now
And perhaps I am guilty of throwing in the towel
I head now to my capsule to sleep
And pray that for the remainder of my journey I make no peep
Starship Terra-
SYSTEM ERROR.
Published 2015-07-10