Hale-Bopp

Rotating like a spinning top
turning like the hands
on a non-digital clock,
streaked across the sky
the comet Hale-Bopp.

Ice, gas, dust hurled from afar,
appeared at times
to be a shooting star.
As approaching the sun
its luminous glow
had an aura-like haze
of a rainbow.

Thirty-nine hailed it
a prophetic sign,
declared it a marker
to leave  earth behind;
meet with the higher maker
known to be a canister taker.

Did not Christ give up his body
on the cross,
when He said, "thy will be done"
to His heavenly boss.
Yet in three days
Christ defeated death -
according to scripture
He regained life's breath.

Did Doe and his crew
expect the same-
man a spaceship
without a given name,
will it be said that they died in vain.

Needless to say
they were fanatically eccentric,
yet, pulled off a stunt
fatalistically horrific.
They had neither spiked hair,
nor pierced earlobes,
they wore Nike shoes
and purple robes;
ate applesauce, dropped phenobarbital
each died on a bunk
behind silent mansion walls.

Supposedly, they were
the cream of the crop,
placed their faith
in galactic slop,
found in the likes
of the comet Hell-bopp.