STAR ROAMER
ALM No.63, May 2024
POETRY
Star Roamer
Thousands of years have now passed in this cold dark
Thousands of years all alone in this new life
Far from the galaxy known to the Hive Men
Far from the squadron I left on this wild dare
Dreamscape of meteors, comets and the great void
Vastness and parsecs and spectra of K stars
Sectors remoteness and the shadows of craters
Thousands of years still remain till my quest’s end.
But now it is time and the instruments say I am going home
But now it is time and Delta instruments do not lie
The point has been reached where my travelling record is halfway done
The point has been reached and Delta meters stare down the stars.
Thousands of stars I must see on my trip back
Thousands of stars will be blazing for my eyes
Crests now corroded attest to my rare deed
Maps that are scarred still acknowledge my long gaze
Lifetime suspended with decades in deep sleep
Visions and hologram ease and a stored peace
Scope for an infinite journey to new realms
Thousands of stars I will hail on my way home.
Gemini Enlisters, Terminal A
See our squadron, soldiers primed
Proud in our space fleet, star aligned
Soon the foe will fear the Hive
Those who resile retreating alive -
See our craft, and the daytime stars
Garnet sun and those glassy towers!
Men of Gemini – praise our name!
Feed our fire and extol our flame!
Boarding now, we heed the Call
Marching as one, grey-clad and tall
Mantra hymns exalt our ranks
Holograms flash, relaying our thanks
Silent screens now display our course,
Point to stars for our focal force
Now we wait for the launch’s surge
Matching warriors’ primal urge!
Orbit lurches, takes our weight
Thrusters ignite and then abate
All at once we’re on our way
Destiny’s laser shining its ray!
Years from now and all worlds will know
News we bring to the Spiral’s glow
Till that age we roam wild and free:
Hail the Twins and the Lord Kalki!
Warriors of the Spiral
Marching to the gantry where the dawn light is a whisper
Halting at our spacecraft where the red stars seem to hail us -
Soldiers in our grey ranks we are K men greeting distant suns
Warriors of the Great Hive we are One Kin fanning epic fire
Swept up in the vastness of the dark gulfs calling us to worlds
Vastness of the dust lanes where the lost moons wandering expire
Vastness of the Spiral and its cold light older than the rocks -
Someday all that vastness will be lauded as within us
But now we have boarded and the journey is beginning.
Daniel King about himself: I am an Australian same-sex oriented writer, with a strong interest in Hinduism (particularly pertaining to Kalki, the 10th and final avatar of Vishnu, the Preserver, incarnating now and forever together with Shiva, the Destroyer), mysticism in general, and astronomy. As a surfer, I am also strongly influenced by marine imagery.