space waltz 2005

start your engines, gentlemen and
gentle ladies–

last night houston crashed
a coffee table into a big rock.

this morning it is being billed as the
first look inside a comet

(with multiple exclamation points).

NASA now gets to cross intergalactic furniture
rearrangement off its shopping list.

speaking personally, deep impact lodges
mixed feelings within my thorax

us ants support the science,
but not the name, for 2 reasons–

a. it sounds like something you’d
find in the adult video section

and b. to you hunams it may sound
aesthetically pleasing

but to us ants it conjures images of the
mighty craters your feet leave behind in us.

36 years ago Neil Armstrong did his
famous space waltz

and here you are in 2005, acting as
galactic enforcers.

some would take this as a sign of
humanity’s regression

but personally, i think all forms of
scientific exploration are great

just as long as someone remembers
to bring along crackers