Day Eight ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2021

Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “For today's prompt, write a metaphor poem. A simile is when something is like something else (example: I am like a tree); a metaphor is when something is something else (example: I am a tree). So take a moment to consider possible metaphors and then poem them out.” Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo  prompt today suggests a “poem in the form of a monologue delivered by someone who is dead” in the mode of “Edgar Lee Masters’ eminently creepy 1915 book Spoon River Anthology. . . . the monologue doesn’t have to be a recounting of the person’s whole life, but could be a fictional remembering of some important moment, or statement of purpose or philosophy.” Alan followed both prompts today: Pachydermata My grandmother told me a story about an elephant’s encounter with blind men who had never even imagined an elephant and groped around it, exclaiming, “The elephant is like a snake!” “The elephant is like a spear!” “The elephant is like a wall!” “The elephant is like a tree trunk!” “The elephant is like a rope!” So, when the empowered decided they needed the right somebody to bring about some vague good they could scarcely envision, they blindly selected me, some body who looked the part of what they imagined they saw, instead of probing my meager achievements and even lesser qualifications. I am the elephant in reverse, or, worse, the one greatest beneficiary of an office I cannot see to direct, the elephant turned inside out. —Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Thanks, Alan. I have heard that story before in differing variants but had not envisioned this ending. My poem today is inspired by ‘Oumuamua, a large cigar-shaped object from outer space between the stars that dipped into the solar system, passing relatively close to planets, including the earth, in 2017. It moved away very quickly before we could study it as in-depth as we might have liked, I believe. Below the poem is an artist's conception of what ‘Oumuamua may look like. The poem is a triolet, my first where I have kept the repeating lines identical; often I alter them slightly for a difference in meaning. The poem certainly arises from the Thorson prompt. It may also be a metaphor poem as suggested by Brewer, but I had no specific metaphor in mind. I would love to hear from readers who find a metaphorical reading; please comment below. Space Pilot ‘Oumuamua is the first known interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System [in] 2017. (Wikipedia) Though I am, technically, already dead, The ship wakes me when we are near something. It electroshocks my body, reboots my head, Though I am, technically, already dead. The ship has repaired my body for nine hundred Years with parts from machines meant for signaling. Though I am, technically, already dead, The ship wakes me when we are near something. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Image Credit: M. Kornmesser / Southern European Observatory Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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