Odes to Joy

This Much Counts as One · Track 49 · middle

Pirate Ninja

Pirate Ninja — ~40.6 W — one kilowatt-hour per sol, from *The Martian*. Volume: VI. ABSURD. ANGLE: Survival arithmetic given a silly name because the alternative is panic. Sing the person or animal inside the unit, never the definition.

No audio yet — generation pending.

Lyrics

The red dirt settles on the Mylar film
I got twelve cold hours at the edge of the realm
If I track the decimals, my chest gets tight
So I throw the official manual into the night
I need a measure that doesn’t sound like a grave
For the miserable trickle I’m trying to save

Come on, you Pirate Ninja, climb the wire
Keep the life support humming, be my imaginary fire
When the battery drops and the end gets near
I just say a stupid word to drown out the fear
It takes a childish joke to hold the black at bay
Run, little Ninja, run until the day

There’s a crimp in the tether where the rover caught the tread
And a smear of grey epoxy on the solar bed
My thumb knows the pulse of the charging blink
Half a second before my tired brain can think
It ain't a textbook metric from a sterile floor
It’s a Saturday cartoon keeping death outside the door

Come on, you Pirate Ninja, climb the wire
Keep the life support humming, be my imaginary fire
When the battery drops and the end gets near
I just say a stupid word to drown out the fear
It takes a childish joke to hold the black at bay
Run, little Ninja, run until the day

They sent me with rulers of silver and glass
But a standard won’t joke with you out in the ash
A proper name tells you exactly what you lack
A stupid name laughs when the void looks back

Come on, you Pirate Ninja, climb the wire
Keep the life support humming, be my imaginary fire
When the battery drops and the end gets near
I just say a stupid word to drown out the fear
It takes a childish joke to hold the black at bay
Run, little Ninja, run until the day

Yeah, the math is perfectly correct
But the math doesn't care if my lungs give up
Keep swinging, you ridiculous thing
Just one more
Just one more
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