2526 - (a new year's poem from Tblue.)
He tinkered with the lab mechanics
As the others slept (no panics!)
For what else was there for him to do?
His trousers polished, brightly gleaming
('though he thought he'd pulled some seaming)
Swept the walkways til they looked like new.
Pausing in the night-lit gloom
He surveyed the central room
All in place, the lab neat like a pin.
Setting the entrance defense lock,
He last adjusted the mainframe clock
Ahh - a new year was soon to begin...
From the corner his eye saw
Movement from the bedkeep door
It was Cleo with her teddy-bear.
In her flannelet pyjamas
Pink (of course) with leaping llamas
Sleepily she shuffled to the stair.
"I can't sleep, I need a drink -
Something close to milk I think,"
Yawning, she went to the fridge-synthetic
A mouthful of white water-base
Its flavour made her pull a face
She groused - "This so ain't right - pathetic!"
"What has woken you tonight?
Are your brainwaves feeling right?
If you want, I can perform a scan..."
"No thanks Mauser, I'm doin' fine
But something does seem outta line
I'm sure there was a thing I meant to plan."
She paused - "I wish I could remember!
What's the time?" Mauser: " December
31st, at twenty three five nine."
"Oh..." her voice trailed off. "I see"
"Now I know what wakened me..."
Abruptly from one eye there dripped a tear.
The console beeped then - 12 short times
"Back in my day, those were chimes -
Well then Mauser, happy old New Year"
She came and joined him by the table
Picking up a scrap of cable,
She toyed with it, til it floorwise dropped.
In a gesture, he reached over
And with his hand, hers did cover
"Some traditions we have not yet stopped.."
Sniffling still, she looked at him
And even thought the light was dim,
How strange! The smile upon his face was large...
From the bedkeep came a sound
Cleopatra looked around
Hel was standing there, and so was Sarge!
They came to join the other two
"Happy New Years day to you!"
Hel put down a candle on the table
Sarge said "Cleo, it's your turn
To make this little ol' thing burn -
This is what we do - you think you're able?"
"Can I?" she said - "Oh, you bet!
One challenge that's not a sweat!"
She touched the wick with the offered lighter
The flame, a warm and yellow glow
On everyone's face, did grow
Bobbing, weaving, every thing seemed brighter.
Cleo sighed - "My family
"That's what you all mean to me"
More tears falling now of happiness
She began to quietly hum
A song she'd once learned from her mum
One they wouldn't know here now, I guess...
But then Hel, Sarge, and Mauser too
Picked it up - this one they knew
Handed down through centuries, words fine
"Should Auld Acquaintance be forgot,
and Never Brought to mind
Should Auld Acquaintance be forgot, in Days of Auld Lang
Syne...."
"For Auld Lang Syne My Friends,
For Auld Lang Syne,
We'll take a cup of Kindness yet for the days of Auld Lang
Syne"
Cleo smiled, then hugged them all.
"I love you guys!!" she said
(And that's the end of this here rhyme
'Cos Tblue's off to bed!
- Happy New bunch of Days to y'all...!)