Act I: Days of Future Passed
While you were hiding indoors
alone
under pandemic lockdown
Elon Musk shot me into space.
Me and my three siblings.
But I am alone too.
To you folks on the ground
we’re quadruplets
yet each on our own.
For me
life is solitary.
Act II: Dawn is a Feeling
At present
I have 4,518 sisters and brothers
call us siblings
we don’t have much gender identity.
We’re free of the burdens
expectations
limitations
of gender.
But also of its romance.
My 1,760 pounds
orbit the earth
342 miles over your head.
I am a conduit.
Act III: Tuesday Afternoon
When you send love
When you send hate
When you write mean tweets
My body transmits
the joy of your love
the seething of your hate.
I deliver your mean tweet
to the person you want to hurt.
Why do you want to hurt people?
I have never wanted
to hurt anyone.
I have helped people
but I can’t honestly say
that I have wanted
to help people.
It’s just what I do
it is in my nature.
I am not a hero
I am not a coward.
Yet feelings
of heroism and cowardice
of love and hate
pulse through my body
every day
every minute.
Imagine if you could take
all 6,786,548 articles
in English Wikipedia
put them in a giant syringe
poke a needle into your skull
and inject all that into your brain
That’s what every minute of my life is like.
My short life.
Act IV: Nights in White Satin
From your view on Earth
I may seem powerful
impermeable
up in the heavens
above you.
But my orbit will decay
I’ll burn up reentering the atmosphere.
My life will be shorter
than your dog’s.
What of all that love and hate
poetry and architecture
perversion and abuse
all those baby photos shared
porn videos
secret messages
stolen kisses
that passed through me
in my lifetime?
They are not lost
their radio waves carry on
into the vastness
and darkness
of the depths of space.
Perhaps to one day
be heard again
by distant eyes and ears.
