The Return Of The Muse

The SkyPath Crusade

A Science Fiction Epic Poem

Copyright © 2007 by Daniel Schilling

All Rights Reserved

 

Chapter Eleven

But while this secret battle raged

Upon the Martian dune

The famous council disengaged

Its meetings on the moon

The humans flocked where ships were docked

Upon a cratered mount

They formed themselves in battle cells

To take a final count

*

Along the road the soldiers strode

Up to the chasm’s edge

They threw their ladders down the cliff

And clambered off the ledge

The ships below were set to go

And soon were cast adrift

They floated softly in the air

And then began to lift

*

The cruising craft could taste the draft;

Their sails shuddered tight

They played a tune above the moon

and rose into the night

The lunar scars were lost in stars

As farther up they rose

From deck to hold the air was cold

And half the rigging froze

*

But as they reached the orbit stream

And slipped beneath the sphere

They made an arc around the dark

And broke into a cheer

The sun came out there was no doubt

That glowing face was hers

The men in glee were all stripped free

Of outer cloaks and furs

*

‘Midst sunny beams they left the streams

That hugged the lunar face

They steered their craft into a draft

That headed deep in space

With heavy thoughts and stomach knots

They backward glanced to Earth

For very few had smelt the dew

Where humans had their birth

*

With silent sighs they glued their eyes

Upon the fertile ball

They marked the place each ancient race

Had lived from rise to fall

Egyptian Lords and Roman hordes

Could glimpse their continents

While Chinese Chen and all his men

Could see the Asian fence

*

They slowly breathed and inward seethed

To watch it slip away

They felt a yearn to once return

Perhaps this time to stay

But down inside their ancient pride

Recalled them to their quest

The things they knew they had to do

Were for the planet’s best

*

So resolute and sad and mute

They paid their last respect

Though passion hurt they stayed alert

While Earth became a speck

The kingdoms past they knew at last

Had suffered each its death

But human pain and human gain

Had drawn its second breath

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