Bad Egg

Simon MacCulloch

'A new analysis…indicates that the rocking motion made by Mimas as it orbits…is caused by a liquid ocean beneath its surface.’ - National Geographic

And many moons must have their hidden seas,

Injected there a million years ago

By beings which, resembling giant fleas,

Would drift from where the outer star-winds blow

In search of eggshell planetoids like these.

How long before they hatch, releasing spawn,

A ravening celestial insect brood

From amniotic moons and asteroids torn,

To batten on the planets for their food

With all the hunger of the freshly born?

Our own moon, fortunately, seems quite dry,

So may be free of horrors hid within;

And yet, when we regard it in the sky,

It greets us with a coldly knowing grin,

And few there are who dare to ponder why.

Simon MacCulloch lives in London and writes poetry for a variety of journals - Spectral Realms, Dreams and Nightmares, Black Petals, Pulsebeat etc.