756 - Beagle II

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #179) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are: 

live, give, heart, gold, expression, searching,

old, ocean, mind, keep, miner, crossed

Beagle II

The craft touched down with a puff of smoke

It had travelled from distant stars;

Its hold was filled with a million and two

Specimens, in large blue jars.

It had crossed the visible universe

Searching for sentient life:

To record their numbers in a ledger of sorts,

And dissect them, with a knife.

And so they came to this blue-brown globe,

Across the oceans of deep space,

To count and catalogue it’s brighter minds,

To see who ran this place.

What was clear to them when they searched around

Was the jungle now owned the city:

Cockroaches, ants and some scaly things,

Made up the welcoming committee.

They approached an old temple of sorts

With gold leaf upon the door;

“It seems place where they burnt their coal

And a miner who wanted more”.

The ship’s scientists were amazed at this,

“Surely they had noticed the sun?

It’s a power source that gives and gives,

There’s free energy by the ton.”

The expression displayed on the leader’s face

Was one of shock and doubt:

“Well, I guess all signs of intelligent life

Died when the coal ran out.”

The cockroaches were most offended, of course, 

To be so rudely sidelined:

“We have far exceeded those men of old,

We have a heart, we have a mind”.

The crew were getting rather restless now

They moaned “This place is far too hot.

It’s like living in a bloody greenhouse,

Let find a better spot!”

And so they filed back on board their ship,

To continue their collecting;

In one lone blue jar, kept in the hold below,

Was a cockroach, for dissecting.

.

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014

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