Ode to the Veteran Tardigrade

Oh steadfast soldier of the night;
(oh tenacious titan of the tiniest)
Beyond the cradle of Earth’s light—
Once clad in the chills of radioactive silence—

You ventured into cosmic fields
(unswayed by time’s line of fire)
Wrapped in your immortal armor
To face symphonic galaxies.

Oh you invisible knight,
Remote mote in God’s eye,
A speck of spectacularity,
A gritty heart of singular might.

You endured the endlessness of space
(deathly gamuts of gamma storms)
To dwell, to survive among voids and stars
Who gods and giants dared not embrace.

Thank you for teaching us
To yield, to fold, yet never to cease.
Guardian survivor, all your triumphs,
All your voyages, and all your artful exits—

We salute you with lyrical toasts
Deployed from the soil we toiled
For you, upholding fragile human life
Among and beyond the known universe.

Oh Water Bear warrior, you bear us all,
The grandest conqueror of the small.