Android In The Sand

Once I saw an android
Sitting in the sand
He looked so despondent
With his head upon his hands.

How long he’d sat there
I really do not know
But it must have been a while
For mould had begun to grow.

“What’s wrong with you?”
I asked, sitting on a log
Staring out from the beach
Towards the oceans fog.

“I really didn’t mean it”
The saddened android said
“I loosened off a virus,
And now the entire planet’s dead”.

They built me just to do this work
Because of their own fear
That they would have an accident
And kill those they held most dear.

So they tasked me to this end
To work upon my own
All details to them must send
No other party shown.

I did the work and finished it
I really have to say
That I was upset, just the tiny bit,
When they tried to kill me with a ray.

I didn’t mean to let the virus out
When I ran into that room
But I’d left open the doors you see
And thus I sealed their doom.

“But what of you?”
The android asked, rising to enquire
“Where are you from?
I have to say, I don’t recognise that attire”.

I’m from Earth, I replied
Many light years hence
And before you ask to return with me
I’m not completely dense.

I have to go and cleanse myself
Of the poison on this world
To ensure my own good health
Before homewards am I hurled.

Two of us is twice the risk
And that I cannot take
I have to warn humankind
Another journey here not to make.

Oh please, ten thousand years
Have I sat here in this sand
There’s no such thing as android tears
And it’s such a lonely land.

But here you’ll sit ten thousand more
Whilst I return to the stars
I’ll never see another shore
But send my report whilst passing mars.

Then I’ll bathe my own android skin
In the very sun
For I cannot risk the sin
Of what you yourself have done.

And there I left the android
Sitting in the sand
Whilst I returned to my ship
With my own android task in hand.