‘Voyagers’ is coming your way soon. It’s a science fiction poetry anthology edited by Mark Pirie and Tim Jones and I’m very happy to have a poem in it. You can read more about it on Tim’s blog here:
http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/voyagers-new-zealand-science-fiction.html
Should be available in New Zealand on 1 June.
There is a mini-site at: http://ipoz.biz/Titles/Voy.htm and an orders page at: http://ipoz.biz/Store/orders.htm
Ode to NASA’s LCROSS Mission
At Cabeus did NASA geeks,
A swifty Centaur rocket hurl,
Where dust, and mayhap water reeks,
‘Pon craters numberless, and peaks,
Under the cosmic whirl.
Sent a metric ton of massy metal,
To feel out lunar soil’s fettle.
And also careful cameras set,
To record impact on lunar rill,
Ensure the wants of public met,
Make time long record of the thrill,
Assure sunny days for budget till.
But, oh! When stopwatch ended countdown,
To indicate the mighty crashdown,
Appeared no hint of fiery flash down,
There on Selene’s apparition.
Were the cameras to be faulted,
For missing flash on Moon assaulted?
Or had some Lunar Politician,
Told Ace, a junior lab technician,
“Strip down that leftover techy thing,
From building that new Saturn ring,
Set a force field strong and watchful,
To stop this arrogant man sent missile. ”
“Include a grokking gizmo, Ace,
To do that thing of the Martian race.
Twist that racing Terran thing,
Clear outa this here four D space.
Enough of taking human guff!
Teach those Earthlings right enough,
That they’re not really red hot stuff!”