• “Cruise passengers who spent up to £680,000 on three-year trip stranded in Belfast for three months: The ship, ‘Odyssey’,
had planned to depart for the three-year voyage on 30 May” —The Independent, August 2024 • “Moon landing goes sideways: Odysseus mission will be cut short after craft tipped over” —USA Today, February 2024 • “Active recalls affecting the Honda Odyssey: 67” —Cars.com, March 2024
Will treks you bless
be hiccup-free,
or choke? I’d guess,
from past debris,
their destiny.
(Asphyxia’s.)
But don’t mind me,
Odysseus.
It’s S.O.S.—
not V.I.P.—
that should impress
in your C.V.
Yet your I.D.
can tizzy us
with travel glee,
Odysseus.
You journeyed, yes,
from A to B,
but hurry-less
and haltingly.
I’m Odyssey-
sus-pish-y-ous.
But few agree,
Odysseus:
I found a bear beside the road,
It was already dead.
I felt the need to drive it home.
Ditto the severed head
Of a cetacean I picked up
And strapped atop my car.
In context, my embracing such
A creature’s not bizarre.
“A 3,500-year-old jar has been accidentally smashed into pieces by a four-year-old boy during a trip to a museum in Israel. … The boy’s father, Alex, said his son ‘pulled the jar slightly” because he was ‘curious about what was inside’, causing it to fall. … The Hecht Museum said the child has been invited back to the exhibition with his family for an organised tour…” —BBC
He tipped the jar, and out the whole gang flew:
War, Sickness, Famine, Rage, Confusion too,
Terror, Fatigue, Old Hatred, Wasted Breath,
Hypocrisy, Indifference, and Death:
Blood-riddles, far beyond a toddler’s scope;
But something else he found there: Hope. We hope.
“Alain Delon’s family refuse to put down pet dog the actor wanted to be buried with” —CNN
Alain Delon so loved his dog Loubo that, when he died,
he wished to have him euthanized and buried by his side.
“I love him like a child,” he said. “No way!” his kids replied.
“Scientists propose warming up Mars by using heat-trapping ‘glitter’” —Reuters
Spread glitter through the atmosphere to warm up planet Mars—
Just fill it with confetti and those sticky golden stars.
And soon enough, the ice will melt and life will find success,
While astronauts with children suffer post-traumatic stress.
“Man knocked out by whale tail whack while in small boat off Gold Coast Queensland police say the man remained in his tinny after the whale hit him in waters near Coolangatta …
[He] didn’t know the whale was there until it appeared in front of him.” —The Guardian
Man knocked out by whale tail whack,
Sitting in his tinny:
Didn’t see the whale, till smack!
(It was not a mini.)
Whale surprised by man head sound.
“Here in Coolangatta,”
Whale opined, “I think I’ve found
Prompts for a toccata.”
Man now conscious, doing fine,
Saved by paramedics
Though with pain traversing spine
And some nasty hedics.
Whale below provides its tail
Rest and relaxation;
Meantime pectorals regale
Friends with syncopation.
Amateur fossil hunter Eddie Templeton’s “latest discovery may be the most unexpected… [T]he tusk belonged to a Columbian mammoth… a first-of-its-kind find for the region.” —CNN
Luckily, pluckily,
Eddie the amateur
picked up a fossil that’s
one of a kind.
Even professional
paleontologists
never expected so
mammoth a find.
“The scientists found that human aging does not happen in a gradual, linear way. Rather, the majority of the molecules they studied showed accelerated, non-linear changes at the ages of 44 and 60.” —CNN
Till I was forty-four years old, my molecules
Were youthful; ditto for my tresses’ folecules;
And then, with no forewarning or compunction,
Both started mitochondrial dysfunction.
I started graying and I started aging,
With damaged DNA and autophaging;
And then it all went quiet, till last autumn:
Time’s germs are loose, and now again I’ve caught ’em.
This year, to grow non-linearly older
Means less to grey and rather more to molder,
With age’s agents’ frightful inundation:
Beware spontaneous deamination!
What’s the next milestone? Science seems divided.
I’d hate to go before my time’s decided.
“Energy bills to rise for millions this winter” —The Sun
“Advanced alien civilisations, if they exist, could satisfy the energy needs of their home planet by migrating near miniature black holes and trapping the potentially unlimited energy around them … [A black hole] can be maintained by throwing small amounts of matter into it…” —The Independent
Looking for a small black hole to tap the power round it?
There’s lots of them to choose from and you’ll know it when you’ve found it.
You have to bring some matter—say, a poem—to throw in, though;
They advertise themselves quite widely—search “Submissions Window.”