011222b

Crop Failure

imagine their displeasure
after 3.8 billion revolutions
the bacterial crop
should have been prime
instead, the farm was crawling
with inedible vermin
multicellular, encrusted with,
or containing, hard bits
of very limited value
the second spheroid from the primary
smothered by an opaque gaseous cloak
the fourth had lost all its water
the rest were worse
the system was a total loss
had to scrub the orb
and start anew