#93 Space - Halley's Comet

You may not know, but earth gets a regular visitor.

And I mean regular, as in, with regularity.

It's far from a common occurrence

But, well, I like to imagine there's a purpose to the visit.



That, far far away, a grand council of others spotted this planet

That they saw it developing, so young as it then was.

And, for the purposes of science and stories

The decided that, every 3 generations, they would monitor our progress



And then they waited



They would have seen so much in our time.

I'd like to think they applauded the young man

The one who, only seeing their comet once, realised the pattern

That they watched, possibly unable to help, as we delved further into war



That these watchers note carefully the steps we've made

That they can see us start to stare up at them

That they let us grow

They watched us be slow



And then



They visited in 1910. And the world was starting to turn.

We'd blackened the land so we could travel it faster

We'd explored the world so we could command it

We had progressed for personal gain



Then, in 1986, they visited again. And the world had turned many times.

They'd seen the greatest period of peace in history

They'd seen us learn to communicate across the seas

They saw that we had finally started to explore beyond earth



Yet they will visit again. They always do

In 2061, the comet will fly by again

The earth will have turned many more times

And I wonder what the watchers will see

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