After the Comet
Ad-ma was a techno, and he worked for Magno Rep.,
Logging vagaries of asteroids, their orbits, speed and depth,
On the eastern shore of Atalan, his villa on the shore
He would plot triangulations, mapping comets by the score,
But his brow was creased with worry,
And his eyes were ringed with black,
For he hadn't slept these many nights
Since Agnar Kor's attack,
It had suddenly appeared from outer
Space that gave it birth,
And the dark and dread conclusion was
It would collide with earth.
It was known as an erratic, potent wanderer through space,
But its orbit wasn't constant, it had been quite hard to trace,
For a week or more it could be seen, quite naked to the eye,
With its tail like whirling serpents lighting up the evening sky,
While at Ba-ha-ma the experts
Had been working on the core,
Of the huge magnetic pulser that
Might save the earth once more,
Set electrostatic charges to
Repulse the comet's head,
Change its course of pure destruction
Or the folk on earth were dead.
Ad-ma told his lovely partner, Neve, to pack their clothes and things,
He would take her to Ba-ha-ma, check the huge magnetic rings,
She was almost six months pregnant, would the baby still be born?
If they had to die together, they would pass within the storm
That the impact of the comet
The destructive Agnar Kor
Would unleash upon the planet
Like some planetary war,
Though if Ad-ma's calculations
Were of any use at all,
He'd beat off the dreadful comet,
Like some great magnetic ball.
They took off before the sunset to give purpose to his plan,
It was just an hour's flight across the breadth of Atalan,
But the pulser overheated, and the core it fairly glowed
And the scientists all panicked, quit the plant and hit the road,
There was no place they could run to
But they panicked all the same,
So when Ad-ma came to help them
All his plans went down the drain.
He took Neve back into safety in
The plane and slammed the door,
Got to 50,000 feet, to head
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
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