Fifth Day of Yule-Tide

 On the fifth day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me, five budget signatures

For a space probe to Titan,

Four record discs for the radio telescope

Three UV fluorescing samples

And two microscope slides

To go in my science laboratory.

 

 

Tani floated in her warm cave

And dreamed of Titan

Of oceans and rivers and rains

Of hydrocarbon

Of a world where you could see the sky

From the ocean

Of a sky filled with vapors and gases and weather

Of spectrum spanning rainbows arching across the sky

Rather than billowing plumes

And the dark night of space

But still the hovering giant of Saturn

Would fill the sky.

It had been a good sixth of a year

Since the last mission to Titan

And Tani had hope

That this time she would go

That this time

She would travel the space between moons

And visit the famed Titan.

It was thus with great glee

That she heard the message left for her

In her lab

That five more benefactors

Had signed on to support the next Titan mission,

And in a neat box

Tied up with a bioluminescent ribbon

Tani found more materials to help her studies,

Four sound recording discs

Three UV fluorescent specimens

And two more microscope slides

All for her science laboratory.

Fourth Day of Yule-Tide 2020

 

On the fourth day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me, four antennae for a radio telescope

Three samples that fluoresce under UV light

And two microscope slides

To go in my science laboratory,

 

Tani hummed happily to herself

As she listened to the music of the stars

A recording based on radio wave signals

Attributed to the stars far beyond Enceladus

The crackle and rise and fall soothing

To her scientific soul.

Turning off her audio device

She squirted out into the water

Beyond the sheltering cave she called home

Towards the science laboratories at which she worked,

There she had the great honor

Of snipping the ribbon

In celebration of the new radio telescope

With four antennae strategically positioned

In a field of stone

Near the lab,

She hooked it into the sound system

And broadcast the sound of the stars

Throughout Enceladus’ ocean.

Later that night in her personal lab

She found three samples

That fluoresce in UV light

And two new slides to examine under her microscopes

In her very own science laboratory.

Shiny

 The silver of the tinsel

Where it swoops along the rafters,

The gleam of the lights

Colored bright in their bulbs of glass,

The sparkle of the ornaments

Where they hang on the tree,

The laughter filled with love

That rings throughout the house,

Shiny.

Third Day of Yule-Tide 2020

 

On the third day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me, three UV-lights

And two microscope slide sets

To go in my science laboratory,

 

Tani undulated happily

Beside the incandescent plume

Of hot water

From Enceladus’ core

The heat seeping into her very bones

The nutrient rich waters

Soothing her skin

As she relaxed arm in arm with her love

Feeling little currents

Twirl off from the great plume

Bringing swirls of heat

Into the greater ocean.

Later they returned to her lab

To find three mysterious objects

On the central lab bench

Tani turned them on

And squealed in delight

For her friends had gifted her with

Three ultra-violet lights

With which to study

Things here on Enceladus

In preparation for the study

Of worlds beyond,

Furthermore, were two small boxes

Containing prepped microscope slides

To further her understanding

Of life on Enceladus.

Second Day of Yule-Tide 2020

 

On the second day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me, two microscopes

To go in my science laboratory,

 

In the dark of Enceladus’ ocean

The warmth from hydrothermal vents

Wraps around the citizens of the ocean

And on a towering autotroph

Of branched ribbons

Waving in the current

Anchored to the stone

The citizens of Enceladus hung globes

Filled with phosphorescence

That the gleaming ribbons were outlined

With pale blue-green light

Undulating in the eternal night

Of the ocean’s depths.

Tani smiled as she watched the festive lights dance

From where she floated arm in arm with her true love

Light was rare and precious in the here-below

And the photons filled her soul

Even as they scattered off into the water.

Later in the day Tani was once again led to her lab

Her lab!

And there on a central lab bench

Were two microscopes

One for large objects

And one for thin slices

That she might examine life as it was on Enceladus

In the hopes of understanding

What life might be like in the great-beyond

She turned on the microscopes

And red light filled the lab with cheer

As if two Red Dwarfs

In binary orbit

In the dark of space

Had ignited.

First Day of Yule-tide 2020

 

On the first day of Yule-tide my true love gave to me, a science laboratory,

 

 

Away from the Sun, beneath the ringed splendor of Saturn

A tiny moon gleams with reflected light

It glitters with plumes of water

That shoot up from its icy crust

Sending wisps of ice crystals into space

To join their brethren in a ring

Around Saturn.

Below, down below, beneath the icy crust

Beneath the fissures that channel curtains of water

Up towards space

Is an ocean

And down, down, in the depths of the ocean

In citadels encircling hydrothermal vents

Islands of warmth on the seafloor

Are the sentient cephalopods

Among them the elegant and graceful

Blue skinned, slender armed

Tani.

Tani is a curious creature

And her large eyes are as full of wonder

As they were when she was a tiny squirt

Only now they are enhanced by the telescopes

Through which she peers

Searching for answers

To the mysteries of the universe.

In the coldest time of year

They hold a celebration

Twelve days of warmth and love

Twelve days of Yule-tide,

And this is a year of special importance

For Tani has been working at the astronomy laboratory

For a full third of Saturn’s year,

Her significant other, her true love

Promised her a Yule-tide like no other

And led her to a site of recent construction

Into the astronomy laboratory

And through the arching doorway,

“Surprise!”  The soundwaves rippled through the water

Tani ran an arm over the door and found the inscription: Tani’s Lab

Overwhelmed with joy she twirled through the water

As her friends and family and coworkers celebrated

For the first day of Yule-tide

Her true loves one and all

Gave Tani a science laboratory.

Samhain Night

 Darkness lurks beneath the trees

Shadows lean out with gleeful grins

And grasping fingers,

The moon is bright and full tonight

Her distant light cool silver-blue

Sharpening the shadows’ edges

Casting their teeth into focus,

Samhain is here at last

When the veil between worlds thins

And monsters roam the night

When Darkness reigns

And fires bring Light

Into the world

Into the souls

Of all who see.