Sunday, March 29, 2015

Rosetta's love

I would have felt the thrill if I was that child again 
to see a washing machine sized capsule land  
on a distant comet hurtling in its orbit into darkness.
The probe itself stalked the comet for a million miles.
Similar mental distances one travels to stalk a date on earth. 
The commanding station's signals were returned with a curtsy
reply from the other end after considerable delay. But a patient 
wait marked this cold acknowledgement, much like with the date
who doesn't answer your calls. Only with Rosetta, it is an 
answering machine that the scientists seem to be dating. 

The mission here is to resolve that matter that is still in the dark 
The matter of our origins which makes us sit up at night 
and wonder at all the coded messages in the twinkling stars. 
The probe landed with a thud of a few hearts that skipped a beat
and clamped itself onto the comet and for once its life depended 
on hugging its love, that it has finally reached after a million miles. 
But before this it fell head over heels and tumbled and broke a limb. 
We go to lengths to keep our dates even in that other world. 
They say we pay with a limb for everything in life. Well, it starts 
with kneeling down in prayers and proposals. And one organ at a time
depending on the habits. One thing was clear, the comet had very 
low gravity and hence very feeble commitment traits. 

Even with these delays, Rosetta sent sights and sounds of that other world. 
Water jets oozing out of the comet were what caught my attention
They were whistling their way through the endless dark with Rosetta
hanging on with all its strength to something who is unresponsive and whistling. 
And before it was all over there was a selfie sent back to the parent planet. 
No time for patient oil paintings. The batteries of this love are running out fast. 

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