I

There was an ancient Astronaut
who stopped me in the street
I asked him, “By my glittering suit
why are you stopping me?”

He held me with his shriveled hand
and said, “I flew my ship
beyond the grasp of gravity,
fresh fruit juice, naps, or chips.”

I sat my rump upon a stone,
ignore him I could not.
And on he talked, that old spaceman,
that ancient astronaut…

“They cleared the ship, they cheered our ship
as we all blasted off
beyond the sky, beyond the moon,
beyond Earth’s mountain tops.

And out there in the womb of worlds,
past Jupiter and Mars,
we faced an awful deep-space-storm
as bad as hail on cars.

And now there came both dust and snow
And we grew very cold
And ice as high as our captain’s eye
slid by our spaceship’s hold.

And in the crocks of snowy rocks
we saw this gloomy gloss.
We saw no shapes of man nor beast
nor any Albatross.

The ice formed here, the ice formed there,
The ice formed all around:
It cracked and growled and roared and howled
As we floated, pound by pound.

We finally crossed one Albatross,
we saw him through the mist.
We knew, we knew not all was lost,
we waved—he got the gist.

That bird ate space-food no birds eat,
around and round it flew.
The ice-rocks split with a thunder-fit
Our captain flew us through!

And a good sun-wind sprung up behind;
Our Albatross? He followed.
And every day, for work or play,
he joined us in our hollow.

In asteroid clouds, in icy shrouds,
that bird flew by our ship.
And every night, through fog-smoke white,
his wings a radar blip.”

I said, “What’s wrong, old astronaut?
Your face looks sad and cross.
What have you done?”

“With my space-gun
I shot the Albatross.”

II

Enraged, my crewmen tied the bird
around my blushing neck
I’d cursed us, jinxed us, doomed our trip.
Our ship would surely wreck…

Well the good space wind still blew behind,
But no space bird did follow,
Nor any day for food or play
did join us in our hollow.

All in that frozen, sable space
the blackened Sun at noon
far back behind the earth was hid
no bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,
still stuck, no jets nor motion;
As idle as a painted boat
upon a painted ocean.

Down dropt the sound of terrors loud,
was sad as sad could be
these monsters landing on our ship
out from the frozen sea!

ROBOTS! ROBOTS EVERYWHERE!

(and all our metal cracked)

ROBOTS, ROBOTS EVERYWHERE,

(that none of our gunmen tracked).

About, about, in beeps and bops
the death-bots danced the night.
The robots, like a witch’s oils,
flashed green and blue and white.

With chests unwarmed, with heartbeats chilled,
we cursed our spacy trip;
Through blackest night we flew through bots,
I bit my arm like flies on rot
and cried, A ship! A ship!

Its wings were bones that blocked the light
from Pluto’s native soil.
A spaceship’s skeleton had come
to make our spaceship roil.

The spaceship’s captain and her crew
were robots.

ROBOTS STILL?!

She joined the flock of spaceship bots
with hopes to crush our will.

They took my crew, they took my food
they took my captain’s wife.
They took all suited for the taking,
left me with my life.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone in the cold cold space.
And never a world took pity on
My cold cold space disgrace.

I looked out in the rotting space
and drew my eyes away;
I looked upon the rotting deck
where all the men once laid.

The planet Neptune streaked in space,
and nowhere did remain
softly she was wheeling out
to ring The Sun again.

Beyond the shadow of my ship,
I watched our space’s stars
They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they reared, the elvish light
fell off in silver shards.

Within the shadow of my ship
I saw the space fish clothed
in blue, bright green, and downy black,
They swam in space, their every track
was a flash of flame or rose.

O happy, joyful living things! No tongue
their beauty might declare:
A spring of love poured from my heard,
And I blessed them unaware:
Surely my God took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.

III

The very second that I prayed
Down from my neck so loose
The Albatross fell off and left
like a killer freed of the noose.

And I flew home back to the Earth
on bits of Robot foes.
And people cheered me back to home,
gave cards, awards, white rose.

‘What happened out there?’ all men asked.
‘What happened out in space?’

I took a sec, then raised my eyes:
‘The struggle of our race.’”

______________________