Queen Of Dried Fruit  

A sultan many years ago

was lounging on his patio

and eating grapes fresh from the vine

that had a mellow yellow shine.

A sultan is a kind of king

who never cleans up anything.

He didn’t finish all the bunch

before he went inside for lunch.

His naughty servants didn’t care

and left the plate of grapes out there.

With all the sun and wafting breeze

those grapes dried to the size of peas.

Their wrinkly skins now golden brown

provoked the king to make a frown.

But thinking they were some new treat

those old dry grapes he tried to eat!

The servants feared he might get ill

then one of them he’d want to kill.

But as he chewed he tapped his feet

then said, Yum-yum.  They taste so sweet!

Their name’s sultana, like my wife.

The queen of all that’s sweet in life.

But was it that he also knew

she’d soon go brown and wrinkly too?

Europa’s Secrets by Celia Berrell

There’s hope Europa has a sea

where living things could really be

because this moon of Jupiter

has lots of solid ice water.

The pictures of Europa show

a crusty surface white as snow

with many lines and ridges mixed

like ice sheets that have cracked and fixed.

As Jupiter’s great gravity

distorts Europa’s cavity

that energy and friction heats

and melts some water underneath.

We think this frozen water layer

could make a sea that’s hiding there.

So just below that crusty shell

it’s possible some microbes dwell.

Or what if it turns out to hold

some animals both weird and bold

that roam Europa’s chilly sea.

True aliens to you and me!

First published in Scientriffic (March 2011)

Reproduced with permission of CSIRO

www.doublehelix.csiro.au 

Discovering life exists in places beyond Earth – like Jupiter’s icy moon Europa – could be a reality in our lifetime.  Thinking about it makes my imagination run wild!  What will these creatures be like?