Under the Rim. An epic galactic romp.
Intro and verses 1-20
Verses 21-40
Verses 41-60
Verses 61-80
Verses 81-100
Verses 101-110
This guy thought it silly that every day
The sun through the heavens did turn
But it weren't really so – it just appeared though
It were moving, or so he did learn
So he built a machine to change all of it round
Which he did on a dark summer night
Since it's all relative not a thought did he give
To the change, but he weren't very bright
(An aside: if you're counting you'll know that by now
We are up to verse hundred and three
You'll recall at this time we should hear of the slime
Where is it? Well, just wait and see)
The planet, once moving at a helluva rate
Was now more or less station'ry
But the things on the surface moved on without surcease
Till there was not left but a tree
The sun was now moving peculiarly
And the planet was stripped to the bedrock
A cruising space-freighter espied this much later
And determined to research the said shock
This lonely billiard ball still in the sky –
Its fate had been coldly surmised
It was writ in a diary and hidden from spyry
And found when they recolonised
Over thousands of years they built up a new ecosphere
Oceans and air all included
With fauna and flora and pasture galore
The refurbishment was concluded
Again 'twere inhabited by many peoples
All healthy with blue eyes a-twinkling
Ignorant of why when they look in the sky
They see their sun bright and all pinkling
To answer this question we'll go back again
To just after the planet stopped moving
There was on that space-freighter a crewman whose mater
Her status at home was improving
To be thought of as something was her aim in life
To outdo the outdoers her intention
But what she could do that was totally new
Was a tax on her powers of invention
Verses 111-120
But she was too wealthy and could well afford
To employ a most capable feller
A man of great power but right up to now a
Man of esteem quite unstellar
He was an artist, an inventor, truly a craftsman
Who worked on a gigantic scale
He'd evolved a technique which was right at its peak
To make solar effluvia more pale
This involved getting billions and billions of tons
Of the rare element Diminuendium
And we know that enough of this unstable stuff
Poured into a star would upend i' some
So that's what he did at phenomenal cost
It was pale red after th'ingestion
“But that's not pink!” you'll probably think
… Well, you're right. Got a better suggestion?
Callest' and the Cap'n knew nothing of this
Not for years did the story get known
But this bit is not germane to the plot
So for now we shall leave it alone
Having fathomed out part of the tale of this star
They re-entered their second-rate transporter
It kept going wrong as it sped them along
And the Cap'n wished he'd never bought her
We'll leave them there now and get back to the crew
Who'd been 'ported some parsecs away
They found themselves lost, in a maelstrom tossed
They'd been spinning for many a day
This heavenly whirlpool was known to all spacers
'Twas half of a galaxy wide
And avoided by all for once in its thrall
For ever would one spin inside
Who knows for what reason that misty-white phantom
Did carelessly throw the ship here
If he'd crushed 'em to bits they would not have the pits
Of their stomachs all mangled in fear
Gravitational hurricanes tore through the reaches
Bare asteroids drunkenly swung all around
And faster and faster toward sure disaster
The Undaunted spun on like a clock-spring unwound
To be continued ...
Image: Pixabay
