1317 - Travelling Flat Out

 

The Sunday Whirl presents twelve words for us to use in a creative writing piece.  

This weeks words are:

air, embraced, pearls, perfection, turtle, altar, garlands, reveries, vanish, name, built, mist

Travelling Flat Out

The place where the story happened was a world on the back 

of four elephants perched on the shell of a giant turtle. 

– Terry Pratchett

From their expressions, you’d never have guessed

But the elephants were far from impressed.

While their air was of calmness and grace

As they surfboarded their turtle through space.

Their inner thoughts were contained and not spilt

About the awkward lifestyle they’d built.

But on the flat earth that balanced above 

The occupants showerd them with love.

They built sacred altars to adore them

Made flower garlands and then actually wore them,

And then danced naked in the light of the moon

Such reveries usually finished at noon.

They viewed the elephants with loving affection

And, with the turtle, considered perfection

To be clearly outlined, for everyone to see.

The universe was defined by what needed to be:

Celestial transport, willingly embraced—

A beast, twenty limbed and five faced.

But the reason for being of this craft

Vanished in the far mists of time, probably graft.

Someone received pearls, gold and myrrh,

To win a contract, lucrative you can infer,

To provide a cheap spacial transport

And the fine print didn’t name the sort.

So, this menagerie sails on through space—

Two creatures not known for their grace

And the flat earth above them, so supported,

Is right royally, and galactically, transported,

No matter what the physicists implore

Existence is nine tenths of the law.

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