Stories
The Nineteenth-Moon-of-Neptune Beasts
by X. J. Kennedy
Who lives on Neptune’s nineteenth moon?
How are its ski conditions?
Oh, why have we never heard one word From the previous expeditions?
We skim low for a look around And splash down. While untwisting Our
airlock door I catch the sound Of infant beasts insisting,
“Please, Mom, can’t we have something else? Yes honestly, we’ve tried,
But these screwy eggs with rockets on Have funny bugs inside!”
Back Yard, July Night
by William Cole
Firefly, airplane, satellite, star— How I wonder which you are.
Far Trek
by June Brady
Some things will never change although We tour out to the stars;
Arriving on the moon we’ll find Our luggage sent to Mars!
This Little Pig Built a Spaceship
by Frederick Winsor
This little pig built a spaceship,
This little pig paid the bill;
This little pig made isotopes, This little pig ate a pill;
And this little pig did nothing at all, But he’s just a little pig
still.
The Difficulty of Living on Other Planets by Dennis Lee
A Martian with a mangled spear
Is stuffing tarts in my left ear.
If I turn off my hearing aid
Will I still taste the marmalade?
There Was a Man
by Dennis Lee
There was a man who never was.
This tragedy occurred because His parents, being none too smart, Were
born two hundred years apart.
