Space Settlement
My father was one of the first men
who mined the moon for materials
(How I loved to say their names when I was young - aluminium, titanium, iron, silicon) to make gigantic tubular wheels that weightlessly
For ever float revolving gently in the vastness of space.
When I was ten, my father came to live in this space settlement.
What joy, what unbridled pride my parents felt to be among those chosen
To be the sole saviours of the human race,
Supplying it with solar energy, essential.
As its precious stocks of oil and coal ran out.
My only brother and I, we did not doubt we would be happy here.
We were the chosen children of chosen parents.
Near the low-gravity hub of the wheel,
The sapphire swimming pool was our perpetual delight.
Diving, we fell slowly, light as winged seeds.
Performing effortlessly aerial acrobatics
No Earth-bound Olympic Champion could ever rival.
From the bottom pushing off we dived upwards, exulting.
Emerging like dolphins, frisky as flying fish.
For a year or more we never wearied of our aquatic games
Then suddenly without apparent reason, we did grow weary
Each day the same hours of reflected sunlight the same temperature each night.
Each day not even a breeze. And worst of all, no sky, no clouds,
No beast, bird, butterfly. The same dull food each day -
Wheaten bread, maize porridge, fish, rice, vegetables, soya beans.
I began to hate my new friends, even my own brother.
We were always quarrelling.
I longed for my old friends, to play the games we played.
Talk about familiar things and happenings.
Longed, longed for my former life.
Exiled for ever, I can never return.
Each night now I dream I am home again.
Albert Rowe
From the poem above, here is my opinion:
I think, this poem is great because it explains about the situation living in space, also about a son who misses his Dad who went to the space - the chosen one... Then by the time goes past, the son began to changed and he missed his friends...
