Poem – THINGS THAT GO “BUMP” IN THE NIGHT (By Ray Gallucci)

 

THINGS THAT GO “BUMP” IN THE NIGHT

 

 

The comet was heading for Earth

To impact directly on Perth:

“Unless we avoid

This death planetoid,

Our lives aren’t a plugged nickel worth.”

 

Too large to deflect it astray

If even they nuked it each day:

“Alas all is lost,

Our hopes away tossed.

We’ve nothing to do except pray.”

 

Then spoke old professor from Prague

Who still worked with slide rule and log:

“My ciphers appear

To say hope is near.”

All listened with faces agog.

 

“Along the ecliptic will pass

This comet, and should it outgas

From only one side

Perhaps may collide

With our Moon’s formidable mass.

 

“Will be necessary to heat

Its surface to vapor complete

Precisely at spot

I mark with this dot.

Thus we’ll our destruction defeat!”

 

It only remained to resolve

The outgassing method involved.

If they could succeed,

No doubt, would indeed

Continue their race to evolve.

 

The Telescope Hubble they aimed

So target exact would be flamed

By light they’d deflect

From sun, just a speck

On distant horizon of space.

 

Don’t say that it couldn’t be done,

For focused precisely the sun

So surface outgassed

In hydrogen blast.

Perhaps they had finally won.

 

But moving a comet’s a chore

Requiring practice galore.

The roaches survived

And bees still they hived,

But humans were found nevermore.

 

(written after seeing one too many asteroid disaster movies;

published in PABLO LENNIS, 10/98)

 

Author Bio:



I am a Professional Engineer who has been writing poetry since 1990. I am an incorrigible rhymer, tending toward the skeptical/cynical regarding daily life. I have been fortunate to have been published in poetry magazines and on-line journals such as NUTHOUSE, MOTHER EARTH INTERNATIONAL, FEELINGS/POETS’ PAPER, MÖBIUS (when Jean Hull Herman published), PABLO LENNIS, MUSE OF FIRE, SO YOUNG!, THE AARDVARK ADVENTURER, POETIC LICENSE, THUMBPRINTS, UNLIKELY STORIES, BIBLIOPHILOS, FULLOSIA PRESS, NOMAD’S CHOIR, HIDDEN OAK, PABLO LENNIS, POETSESPRESSO, SOUL FOUNTAIN, WRITER’S JOURNAL, ATLANTIC PACIFIC PRESS, DERONDA REVIEW, LYRIC, THE STORYTELLER, WRITE ON! and DANA LITERARY SOCIETY.