Valentine’s Day Atacama Desert and Ata V-al(i)en-tine Mirror Poem

I went to the scrabble doctor the other day, and told them I used to have a-l-i-e-n-a-t-e-d but now just had a-l-i-e-n.
They said it looked as if I was nearly half way to solving the problem, and well on the way to complete eradication of the problem.
However, they couldn’t give me a date, now I didn’t have the a-t-e-d any more!

They did recommend I exercise my a, l, i, e and n in a V-alen-t-i-ne poem, so inspired by my visit to the Atacama Desert in 1994, and seeing a story a couple of years ago about a mystery humanoid found there, named Ata, here’s a Folding Mirror poem divided between travel memoir and alien mystery.

The poem follows a few photos from the Atacama with relevance for the poem. There’s a slideshow of more of my photos from a happily surreal day in the desert on travel25years:

Atacama  Photo Memory, Ata Alien Story

saw llamas and a vizcacha
on a day-trip to Atacama
from Arica on the Chilean Pacific
clear skies made Andes scenery terrific
leaving valleys greened by morning dew
grey mist still at scene providing clue
desert’s debatedly Earth’s driest plain
Yungay existed without hardly feeling rain
from Antofagasta to Salta
leaving Chile for Argentina
past salt lakes reflecting white-tipped mountains
run Lots  ‘a las Nubes’ – ‘to the Clouds’ trains
I didn’t travel fifth highest railway on planet
bussed down from Peru and returned for exit

last been in Nazca ‘lines’, since heard of ‘alien’ Ata

did it arrive not knowing what it’d find
then perished after encounter of the fifth kind
Pima legend recall UFOs flying ‘Star Range’ – ‘Sierra Estrella’
a space highway wormhole over America
loving anteaters and coatis
flying south on Nortes
Ata survived until up to eight
fighting way above its weight
only had ten ribs on each side
human norm is twelve scientists decide
had visible tooth in Mandible jaw
human development takes year or more
Ata had only six-inches height
same as pencil or sprite

Vizcacha: South American rodent.
Yungay: Chile town.
Train to the Clouds: Tren a las Nubes
Lot salt story in Genesis 19, Bible.
Sirius: Ata research and above photo.
Men were said to have a rib less than women on one side, according to the Adam and Eve Bible story, where Eve was created from one of Adam’s ribs, but scientific study such as by 16th Century Flemish anatomist Veselius proved both genders normally have twelve each side.
Nortes: Americas wind.
Sierra Estrella native history: featured in Phoenix U.F.O. documentary on YouTube.