Cassiopeia Examiner

The orbit it settled in long ago
kept her from going in down’s direction.
She was a probe from an alien place
sent to the Earth for long term inspection.

Long before Sputnik awed people worldwide,
prior to space being man’s new frontier,
Cassiopeia Examiner watched
new upstarts called human beings appear.

Examiner watched as millennia passed,
carefully eying man’s steady assent.
Cassiopeia saw conflict arise,
and she would ponder the human intent.

(Programmed by beings on V509,
  Cassiopeia Examiner thought.
  As human beings spread over the Earth,
  Cassiopeia in time was self taught.)

Civilizations appeared to the probe,
China and Egypt, the Greeks, Roman might.
Examiner monitored conflict and war,
high in its orbit receiving sunlight.

The age of reason, industrial surge,
building great cities and technology.
Cassiopeia recorded it all,
since through the ages she was there to see.

Then man was able to reach for the stars,
sending his satellites to orbit so.
Cassiopeia unraveled her cloak,
thinking discretion to be apropos.

(Cassiopeia could not help but think
  man’s penchant for violence remained true.
  She would not disclose her identity
  because she didn't know what man would do.)

She remains probe in Earth orbit today,
and even NASA knows not of her space.
Yet she sends reports to V509,
still holding out hope for the human race.


36 Lines
Writer’s Cramp
October 5, 2013

Cassiopeia is a constellation in the northern sky, named after the vain queen Cassiopeia
in Greek mythology, who boasted about her unrivaled beauty.