Supersonic
Rocketeers
Under
the crust of the next planet
we
found an entire civilization that was
utterly
unaware of the outer world.
The
Dashing Captain struck a pose,
and
romanced a Virgin Queen with his
hard,
tanned, body.
He
pressed his raygun to her chest,
threatened
incineration unless his guards
released
the Young Ensign.
She
gave a subtle sign and the adamantine pikes
ground
their butts into the same floor
that
received hers later that night.
The
Young Ensign went exploring,
beating
off albino cave girls,
found
the secret laboratory in which The Evil Dr.
was
vivisecting the First Mate.
Alarm!
Alarm! Intergalactic horror!
We
put a stop to this, by dam,
muttered
the Crotchety Engineer, and he
and
the ensign wrecked havoc in the Doomed Citadel,
exterminating
a race that was composing rhymed
and
metered poetry when our ancestors
were
eating their own feces and
each
other in dank, lightless caves.
They
rescued the Dashing Captain from the alarming
clutches
of the Virgin Queen
and
beat a hasty retreat,
while
the Second Engineer was firing up
the
fusion thrusters.
As
soon as they were aboard she
flung
the ship into the sky.
The
Wounded Captain was indisposed,
and
the Second Mate took the conn.
It
was her chance to shine, and she
did
some pretty fine navigating out of the
Hymenopterous
Cluster her very first try.
We
were all so proud,
And
even the Wilted Captain felt better.
Alas,
when the eggs hatched,
the
Dashing Captain was irretrievably spoiled,
and
the Second Mate
had
to carry on without him.
END
of
poem
Previously
published, Strange Horizons, 2004; Luminous
Worlds, 2013 (https://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Worlds-David-C-Kopaska-Merkel-ebook/dp/B00G799OF0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471788492&sr=8-1&keywords=kopaska-merkel+luminous#nav-subnav)
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