| The Tanatula had me terrified. The Fly gave me nighmares. Forbidden Planet - I waited in the lobby during the atonal screeching roaring scene of the "id" being released. But there was also the beatiful and eerie Destination Moon. And The Invisible Boy who I prayed I'd be made. Chosen By the ultimate, dispassionate computer seeking to enslave and replace humanity. And Klaatu in Day the Earth Stood Still who I also prayed to be but when I grew older. |
It started with Von Braun on
The Wonderful World of Disney
"Humanity will spread among the stars"
he said...or at least that's what I heard
A majestic and beautiful universe
painted by Chesley Bonestell,
scored by Leth Stevens
waited
for me.
A cathedral
whose celestial ceiling arches
were the orbits
of Jupiter
and Saturn.
For this
in preparation
I gladly renounced
my emotional
anchors
to this
rock.
I failed to become
The Invisible Boy
(though computers figured
prominently
throughout my life
and may yet
enslave and replace)
and now
rather late
yes
I have become
Klaatu
though nowhere near
as handsome
or omniscient
"This was to be a gift to the leaders of your world."
Perhaps.
Or,
more accurately,
Thomas Jerome Newton.
"Are you Lithuanian?"
And on the basis
of this evidence
I conclude
there is a god
that can be petitioned by prayer,
and it is
utterly,
unimaginably
alien. |
by Edward Covannon