anthropomorphization

”A thrilling epoch in the exploration of our solar system came to a close today, as NASA's Cassini spacecraft made a fateful plunge into the atmosphere of Saturn, ending its 13-year tour of the ringed planet…’ It's a bittersweet, but fond, farewell…’” – NASA press release

. . .

we humans
tend to project
ourselves on
everything
as if we
are the sole
yardstick
for measuring
the universe

we sent a machine
we called Cassini
to do some exploring for us
and it performed
perfectly

good news
good info
good science

but Cassini
is just
a machine

not us
not a person

yet many insist
on treating it
as if it were
a living
being
a sentient
being

and shed
small tears
at its demise

metal skin and
silicon sinews
stripped away
by atmospheric friction
a cross between
a blow torch and
a belt sander

Saturn
just got
medieval
on Cassini’s
robot ass

the sentimental
among us say
“well done, thou
good and faithful
servant”

and imagine
Cassini
stiff upper robotic lip
to the very end
plunging nobly
into the upper
atmosphere
of Saturn
to perform
one last act
of loving
self-sacrificing
service  
for humanity
to the very end

really?

that’s what you
sentimentalists think?

you attach
only the
kindest
warmest
noblest
emotions
to Cassini
to mask what
you did

how would
you feel
if some uncaring creator
made you for no purpose
but to serve them
banishing you
to a lifetime
of loneliness
and a far lonelier
death?

if we are
insistent on
anthropomorphizing
Cassini
I imagine
its final thought
on the way down
lay more along

“thank goddard
my hellish
existence
is about
to end”

# # # # #

© Buzz Dixon