Awakening

Awakening (on the re-awakening of the Rosetta probe in deep space, ready to begin its mission to attempt a landing on a comet. I tried to imagine how this awkward teenage piece of technology would feel upon being rudely woken up.)

It’s bad enough that they’ve sent me out here,

Within the deep, dark frontiers of space,

In some wide-ranging lonely orbit,

‘Cos out near Jupiter’s a damned dingy place.

Worse – they’ve left me to float inactive,

Beyond home planets, out here in the deep,

But now they’ve had the gall and damned cheek,

To expect me to just wake up from my sleep.

They sit there back at home in some comfort,

Saying “Time to wake up, Rosetta!”

After I’ve been snoozing for nearly two years:

To be honest – I wish I felt better.

I just want to hit the snooze button,

To silence this intruding alarm,

To stop this electronic ringing,

Shut the damn thing up, to get back to calm.

But hibernation’s no longer allowed:

Seems I’ve got to spring into action,

And get my antennae and boosters shifting -

They want to continue the transaction.

There’s a task I’m programmed to complete,

An endeavour I just can’t avoid,

The transmission said “complete your mission:

Time to start chasing that asteroid!”

It’s a dangerous, elliptical task,

With a flight-path light-years beyond Mars,

I know I’ll vomit when I get near the comet,

But if I miss, I’ll be out there in the stars.

How I wish I could come back home again,

Where I was made, the place of my birth,

I’ve found it’s no fun, out here near the Sun,

Please! Can’t I return to the Earth?

Or at least let me return to my slumbers,

Let me go back to the realm of my dreams,

Find some other bundle of hardware,

To accomplish your plans and your schemes!

Let me re-fold my solar panels,

Let my circuits cool down and then,

If I just ignore my own software,

I could get back to sleep once again.

  

Just let me pull back over my covers,

For this task I wish I hadn’t been built.

Can’t we just say I’m having a duvet day,

As I sink under my electronic quilt?

So if you lot think you’ve got a hard life,

As you struggle to stifle a yawn,

Just think of me out here in deep space,

Next time the alarm clock goes off in the dawn.

I’ll be out here chasing the comet’s tail,

Although I’m told at the end of this test,

As my new ongoing incentive,

They’re going to let me have a VERY long rest!

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2014