This one grabbed me as soon as I saw the title, and gripped me even harder as I read, then sang, through it. "Wayfaring Stranger" is one of many folk songs I absorbed as a kid.
Your first verse, of course, seems to be in the voice of a human, especially its fourth line, "A change in climate boiled the sea". But each verse after that pulls further away from that interpretation
2 a thousand years
3 my treasured coat
4 to be a father (but "last one of my race"?)
5 Sol 3; ideal for procreation: 1/4 land, 3/4 sea
6 humans don’t live centuries
till the final revelation in the last lines. (No spoiler here!)
And the close echo of the original's "to see my father". Thank you, Rich. This one's an absolute keeper.
Mark Mandel
"The Filker with No Nickname"
On Wednesday, May 18, 2022 at 12:27:46 AM UTC-4, Rich Brown wrote:
> I blame Eric Coleman for this. Eric selected "Wayfaring Stranger" to
> play on Filkcast, and that led directly to ...
>
>
> Spacefaring Stranger
> ...