To understand him
you have to go back
to those cheap paperbacks
with lurid covers
we devoured
so many years ago
in the Golden Age
of Science Fiction.

Not SciFi,
(cowboys in spacesuits
riding the cosmic range)
but SF.

Azimov
Clarke
Kornbluth
Speculative Fiction
What if…

And so often
behind the lurid cover
and on those pulpy pages
there would be
a young guy
smarter than anyone
dreaming
of stars
and machines
and vast enterprises.

And of course no one
understood him
but that didn’t stop him
he did it anyway
tearing through
rules and regs
customs and laws
current science
personal relationships
anything,really
in his way.

Bound by no covention
no precedent
twisting reality
to his needs
and of course
needing tons of money
for his rockets
and so
making tons of money
because he’s smarter
than anyone.

But the creaking
moribund
apparatus of government
can’t accommodate him
so he looks around
and finds
someone
driven by a need
as unbridled as his own.

And together
they dismantle
anything
everything
standing in
their way
and reach
the stars.

Elon!
Turn out the light!
Time to go to sleep!


Comments

4 responses to “Elon”

  1. Wishing on a star…

    55 Cancri e

    is an exo-planet that careens
    about its yellow star in eighteen
    hours, a distant spinner of dreams.

    55 Cancri e has a heart, they declare,
    of iron, and a body of diamond, rare…
    Faraway entrepreneurs sniff the air.

    Elon built a starship—its hold is filled
    with champagne, chilled. His charming shill
    netted Jeff and Mark and Bill. Donald’s chill
    to the drill that cosmic rays cure any ill.

    Melania, zombied under a golden curse,
    slogs the red carpet to her new universe.
    Heels teetering, mascara-ringed eyes averse—
    who knew this marriage could get even worse?

    But all is not lost, dear–Soldiers fly for free!
    They have cleared the barracks and armories.
    The billionaires now have all the security—
    bronzed, buff, faithful, and stoked for futurity.

    Close the lock; uncork the fizz. Their course is fixed—
    aimed at a diamond bigger than the Ritz.

    Deb O’Rourke, Oct 2020
    With a nod, of course, to F.S. Fitzgerald.

    https://www.space.com/18011-super-earth-planet-diamond world.html

    1. This is wonderful. So prescient. And it looks like the line breaks are preserved.

  2. Deb O'Rourke Avatar
    Deb O’Rourke

    Alas, the line-breaks on my poem were not retained.
    But you catch the drift.

    1. I think the line breaks are good.

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