Back to Mars

Merely with a shovel he dug 9000 feet.
Earth was a continent kept on the dig.
There was no time to sleep.
Lanterns appeared in the deep.
One Chinese in a billion woke
and asked the Oracle what was in store.

Almost Finished led to You Better Get It Straight.
Which being interpreted meant
their mole took a plane, and our mole the sub;
they passed at 30,000 feet.
Except one was above,
the other was below the ground.

Their mole got to Mars and radioed earth,
"look in my basement, see if there's proof!"
We went to interview the daughter,
who had climbed to Burbank, California
on a very long length of rope.
which Alp of hyperbolic thought

Was so cavernous that Biting Through
became Time To Invest:
"Where earth seems higher
dig and you will find the
dirty little burrowing friar."

Taxis and sanitation then hauled away the rest.

Our citizens have played it safe.
To which end the mole on Mars made haste.
The neighborhood had so dug deep by now
they're certain everyone was going to Tao.
To grasp the threat and material reward
Everyone was digging in the yard.

Helicopters light the backyard beds,
they thought the mole was underneath.
Mars had its ear the city feared.
But the mole was serious enough,
took mechanical men and parachuted
back into the human mind again.

 

AE Reiff
Andrew Reiff completed a study of American voyages, "Restorations of the Golden Age in New World Discoveries," the first chapter of which appeared as "The Loss of the Golden Age," and a book of verse constructing an American Calendar, called "A Calendar of Poems, Encouragements for Such as Shall Have Intention to Be Undertakers in the Planting," which title indexes his later writing.