Pack Rat

Gone with fire,
 Lost in the summer night.
 A sample of a yet unknown race –
 Measured, classified!
 Where am I?
 Walls of metal all around...
 Darkness – wet and cold!
 A glaring light...
 The sound of steps is near...
 A cosmic Pack Rat got another souvenir!
 Desolate in outer space
 A slowly dying automated machine -
 Yet the mission is clear!
 Kept alive,
 Given stuff to eat, air to breath.
 Soon you realize -
 This Cabinet of Wonders is your home for life!
 A cosmic derelict,
 A guest from distant stars,
 Picking up new forms of life on its way -
 Gone astray!
 On its journey to the unknown worlds
 In eternal wait for creators to come
 Dying species move in formalin flasks!
 Desolate in outer space,
 Trapped by dying automated machine
 In a hopeless wait
 That smells like formalin!
 Smells like formalin!!!