Starman

 

From the whirling clouds of matter swirled

From some dark distant place,

Far beyond the distant vistas that

The Hubble's lens could trace,

There approached a battered vessel like

The long lost Holy Grail,

With a magno-drive, half crippled, as

It landed on its tail.

 

With the crusted metal glowing with

The detritus of space,

And an inner hum, a grinding like

A flywheel out of place,

There was seen to be an opening,

A long descending lip,

And a man with moons and crescents

On his helmet, left the ship.

 

And the suit he wore was silver of

No texture known to man,

With a symbol on his shoulder like

The god we knew as Pan,

While an aura formed around him

Like the stars within the skies,

They were whirling in confusion,

Were reflected in his eyes!

 

And there followed in his train a host

Of men with angels wings,

But they shimmered like the mist of

A mirage, the desert brings,

And the sound they made was painful like

The music of the spheres,

It made soldiers drop their weapons,

Fall to earth, and hold their ears.

 

Then he strode on out amongst them like

A giant in the land,

And he seemed to grow in stature as

He opened up his hand,

Where a tiny whirling cosmos whirled

Elliptic in reverse,

Like a model of the galaxy,

Our own small universe!

 

He looked up at the sky where all

The clouds had turned to gold,

With the flash of distant lightning that

Some prophet had foretold,

And the thunder rumbled eerily

Across the planet's face,

As the angels rose about him in

Some panoramic grace.

 

He removed his gilded helmet, and

He then began to speak,

His voice like some dread avatar

That men had feared to seek,

His words were faintly chilling as

The sun sank in the west,

'I see that you have multiplied

Inside my treasure chest!'

 

'When last I came among you

There were fields and mountain streams,

There were mighty oaks and redwoods,

Sweeping vistas made of dreams,

And the skies were blue, unclouded,

And the air you breathed was pure,

But I sense some foul corruption has

Crept inward from the shore!'

 

'For your seas are now polluted with

Your fæces and your greed,

I left fish and healthy species, for

Your food, and for your need,

But you hunted to extinction,

Now the buffalo is rare,

And the ice is slowly melting

Underneath each Polar Bear.'

 

'So we'll take your finest women

As we did in Moses day,

When we came down from the heavens

To improve your DNA,

And we'll leave you to your folly,

To the wages of your greed,

While we choose another planet

And implant another seed.'

 

Then the wind, it came in scurries

And it whirled about his knees,

The pollution from the gasworks, from

The belching factories,

And it covered all the angels in

Corrosion from its rust,

And the angels dissipated

With its acid, turned to dust!

 

Then it swept into his face and made

His Holy features burn,

As it made his eyes to water and

It choked him as he turned,

And he tried to make it back toward

The ship that lay in wait,

But his skin began to fester,

And his head began to ache.

 

Now he's breathing in a bubble, fed

With oxy through a line,

And his skull has been uncovered

Much as if he'd washed in lime,

And his ship has been dismantled,

Melted down and turned to cans,

Filled and labeled 'Holy Water'

For his few remaining fans!

 

David Lewis Paget

Author's Note

Genesis V.6 - When mankind began to increase and to spread all over the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of the gods saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; so they took for themselves such women as they chose. (New English Bible)

Reviews

[softlyfall]

He is gone, the ultimate starman. In the end, we are all made of a cup of stardust. But his wings had such style, covered with glitter and bling. He flew with such delicious swag.
We are all stardust, countless individual cells that only cling for the mutual purpose of giving carnal form to our souls, just for a while.
This is so excellent it makes me almost sad. Why does real beauty often make us sad I wonder?

[Jack Shellfish]

You are a very talented man David. What strikes me the most from the work that I have read of yours, is how effortless your poetry seems to be . It doesn't appear strained in anyway, just really natural. Well done.

[Valentine]

David, this is one of your best..Man has destroyed nearly everything they have touched..and by man I mean both sexes. I saw the rivers so polluted things would float on top and not sink,,In Michigan my swimming pool would be covered with black specks that fell out of the air and polluted the water in our pool. Forests are laid bare and nothing but weeds grw where mighty oaks once stood..I am positive this was not the Master's Plan for this world..A wonderful write..love and God bless Lyn and you..Kathie

[samantha]

u know i like meny poems i read because the writer worked hard on them and there uniqe keep up the good work hun love it

[Ferg]

Like a cosmic Noah's Ark........God created a beautiful planet and we corrupted it beyond recognition so he took the best of everything and destroyed the rest. Always a clever and engaging read, your work is!

[Ellen Hammond]

You are great at weaving tales with a moral in rhyme. A very interesting way of depicting how our pollution effects all creatures, even the angels. I found your story-poem most interested and a lovely read.

[Thomas B. Buckman]

This is an awesome take on the end of days, or a judgement of some sort.
Really interesting.