493
Creatures I have seen,
In the long grass and
Shallow ponds, and the
Caves in between.
There live the mighty rulers
In the enormous, vast unknown;
Those that control elements and
Those that feel alone—
For never should they belong
To a single trainer solitaire,
With an expansive world from Arceus,
Who is seen from Viridian to Altomare.
Trainers can wander,
But yet they can’t comprehend,
The number of critters that they must find
And those they must befriend.
The Zigzagoon and Bidoof, too,
And Sentret and Rattata;
Too common to not be called
Programmer trash data.
The hundreds run and scurry about
Through the forests they forgot,
Trying to find a solution for
The hunger they have sought.
And the great Groudon
And the mighty Dialga;
They must be fighting relentlessly
With Kyogre and Palkia, respectively.
Then the large birds—Lugia sea guardian,
Staraptor the brave, Articuno in the freezer,
Empoleon with flight ephemeral—
Collectively flying above, in the
Skies of the Rayquaza,
Or caught with Psyduck, the waterfowl.
Diligently, gallant in battle,
Amazingly discrete—
The Pokémon meander about,
energized for a fight,
Willing to learn of defeat.
Give me Turtwig, give me Piplup,
Or just give me Chimchar—
I don’t care.
The great evolutionist Eevee
With its seven different natures.
What about the popular Charizard
Whose cards were your tenure?
The great professors,
One in each region,
Initiate new trainers
With the first of their legion.
The grass, the fire, the water, the ice,
And the thirteen other types
Are inset in the many beasts
Who live on with our hype.
Our game consoles wouldn’t be without
Pokémon Pearl, Sapphire, Gold, or Red.
Hundreds of hours of seeking and bouts
Right there, in the cartridges that surely spread.
Can you see how it all became?
How did Pokémon attain such fame?
Nobody saw how Ash Ketchum would live on
With eleven seasons on TV;
Nor did they see Misty, May, or Dawn,
Or Brock, or Oak, or Pikachu,
Or anyone else, quite canonically.
All have a journey,
All must prevail,
All must be a master,
None must fail.
We all have Poké Balls
Ready to see what we can find,
In the vast expanses
Of space and time.
These monsters, from the Buizel in the sea
…to the Ponyta running free
…to the Ledyba in the tree
Not without Salamence above
Or the Onix below.
We all live in a Pokémon world:
You and me,
Gotta catch ‘em all,
As in all
493.