Poem from _The Tin Men_

Latest collaborative poetry chapbook from me & Kendall Evans, copies signed by both of us available from either of us.


EL DORADO ASTEROID


I've heard you are out there
Way out
Exploring the far reaches
Out past the orbit of Mars
Searching
For El Dorado Asteroid

Shuttling thru the belt
Sifting through the void
On a star crossed mission
Seeking El Dorado Asteroid

They say El Dorado
Is radioactive, the old
You-can't-have-it-
If-I-can't-have-it
Gambit
Nuked to prevent a glut
In our solar system's gold market

But those beta particles
Don't last forever
I hear you packed a cold-sleep coffin
I know your game
You’re really something,
If it's hot when you find it
You'll wait that sucker out
Or persuade an android
To mine it; somehow
You’ll win the El Dorado Asteroid

But what will you do
If someone finds it first
Sends it through a time warp
Runs down that radioactivity
With tricky entropy
So the gold of El Dorado Asteroid
Can be sold
Can be exploited

Or, you know
Somebody might already
Have a connection with
Space aliens
Who don't mind a little
Spice with their gold
For whom jewelry
Made from El Dorado asteroid
Is just like eating pickled
Jalapeno peppers

Or maybe, say, it's
More like coriander
For the aliens
Concentrated in
Pomme-granite juice
Plus a few
Randomly fortuitous
Mutations

A glut of gold for your gluttony
El Dorado Asteroid is
And speaking of all that fallout
Long thin straggling strands
All the hair you have left
Have you vomited up any blood
That lonely deadly asteroid
Is your only lover

We could have shared a fortune
When we discovered
El Dorado Asteroid
But you couldn't wait
You wanted me out of the contract
You know
The one I entered into
After the alien contact;
After you left the orbiting crèche
And made such a splash
In Indonesia

But that's not really
What I wanted to tell you
Oh no―
You'll be out there
On life support (if you are lucky)
And I'll be earning credit
In this new growth industry

When information crashed
Metals came back in
They're stable and that's good
When times are hard
But now metals
Are out the airlock
And alien technology is hot
I've got a beautiful contact
And I do mean beautiful
Despite the spines
And we respect each other
We’ve signed a long-term contract
I am really going places
Even without
That damned El Dorado Asteroid
 
She's really something
And the doctors say
With a little manipulation
They can make my sperm
Her eggs merge/align―
Genetically compatible  
 
P.S.  Maybe you could spare
A few ounces of the yellow stuff
Yg-tg-ki-ki has decided to adopt
Our cultural traditions
Says she wants a diamond
14 karat golden ring--
Shall I dream
Of mutated offspring? 

--

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