PAD Day 9: Amaze, Amaze, Amaze

 Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a poem titled "_____ But _____," and (2) " try writing your own poem in the voice of an animal or plant, or a poem that describes a specific animal or plant with references to historical events or scientific facts."  

I went off on a little tangent with the second prompt. Instead of writing in the voice of an animal or plant, I chose a certain intelligent alien in a certain new SF movie called Project Hail Mary, based on the novel by Anrew Weir (who also wrote The Martian.) I highly recommend it. It's exciting, funny, heartwarming with a positive message, with amazing non-digital, non-AI effects, and a perfect family-friendly "popcorn movie." The last sentence of the poem, spoken by "Rocky" in the film, is already becoming a catch-phrase, in fact one of the Artemis crew recently quioted it in reference to their views of the earth and the moon. So without further ado, here's Rocky (via the translator built by Dr. Grace):

Rock, But Living
 
Hello, I am [unintelligible musical language].
My human friend Grace calls me “Rocky.”
That is because I am made of rock, but living.
I am from planet you call Erid.
We meet in space, near star you call Tau Ceti. 

After I send Grace messages
made from metallic xenon, we dock our ships.
We are scientists and engineers.
We work together to try to solve problem 

of “astrophages” which are eating our suns. 

We become friends, even though we are very different.
I breathe ammonia, he breathes nitrogen and oxygen.
I have five appendages, he has only four,
and something called “face.”
I can only “see” by echolocation.
But we have same objective, to find way
to save our suns and our universe.
Good job, good job, Rocky and Grace.
Grace tells me not to say more,
or I will make something called “spoiler.”
Grace says, come watch moving picture
of our story. Amaze, amaze, amaze!