The Chase and Red

CHAPTER TWO

THE CHASE

The earthbound watchers ran to cars

     To track the disappearing craft.

Meanwhile, though lifting toward the stars

     In their floating windborne raft,

The kids feel joy that nothing mars--

     They looked, and clapped their hands and laughed.

John used his knowledge in the chase.

     He rode the wind and cut the gap,

But not enough.  With Indian grace,

     With chant, with song, with rhythmic clap

He called Blue Herons to the race.

     They thrust him on with each wing flap.

The gap was closed.  John thanked his friends.

     He told the children what to do.

They tied the crafts with cable ends,

     Shut off the heating flame of blue,

And pulled the levers to descend.

     So nothing bad could now ensue.

But unexpectedly they stopped

     And found a rosy light all round.

No one was hurt by this flip/flop

     But neither had they reached the ground.

They'd hit the rainbow, way on top,

     Caught on an airborne, crimson mound.

CHAPTER THREE

RED

Down far below they saw the earth.

     They saw, there, cars in caravan.

Around themselves, for what it's worth,

     All things were pink or red.  "Oh, Man!!"

Said Josh, without a trace of mirth,

     "That headdress there is like a fan!"

Towering above them was a God,

     Red flames and feathers on his head.

"The Sun God!!" John cried, looking odd.

     "Yes.  Greetings,"  the huge being said

And raised his right hand where he stood.

     "Welcome to the Land of Red."

Please, Mister God," Fried blurted out,

     "Sir, can you help us get back home?

Our folks are frantic now, no doubt.

     Your rainbow's nice, it's like a poem,

So pink and pretty all about,

     But down there's where we'd rather roam."

The Sun God smiled, "Of course, my child.

     Just listen to my ancient tale

As it has clues;  just keep them filed

     For use along the rainbow trail

To help with problems, tame or wild,

     Until you reach the Rain God's vale."

Somewhere, over the rainbow

Dedicated to 

Frieda, McKenzie, Joshua and Owen

May you all find many rainbows

Printed in Fort Bragg, California 1996 c

Chapter One

The Start

The trip began at first dawn light -
     Sonoma field of sparkling green,
Fabric of purple, red (so bright!),
     Yellow, blue - all could be seen
Spread on the grass prepared for flight.
     Two huge ballons!! Four kids between.

The Indian, John and Mister B.
     Would guide the crafts into the sky.
They'd drift past fields - so much to see.
     Josh, Owen, Kenz, and Fried would fly
In hanging baskets, far and free.
     Hot-air balloons could go so high.

But something happened at the start!
     Josh and McKenzie, quite alone
Had lifted off!  They were apart!
     Their ropes now trailed, their height had grown.
The crowd appalled, had pounding heart.
     "They'll crash..." their dad was heard to moan.

But Pomo Indian pilot, John,
     In his ballon began pursuit.
Though Fried and O were also on
     His craft with him, he was astute
And knew that dangers all were gone:
     He knew his ship! He knew the route!

(to be continued)

WOW!

Starquakes

Magellanic Cloud

     For someone interested in the natural world, reading about cosmic events can be exciting.  For example, back on March 5, 1979 and 170,000 light years away in the large Magellanic Cloud (a distant galaxy) a neutron star in the remnant of a supernova explosion sent out a 2/10th second burst of hard gamma rays.  The energy in that burst exceeded the total energy output by our own sun in many, many years.  It was a magnetic starquake on a so-called magnetar.  Even reading about it elicited a "Wow!" from me.

   
  But my own personal excitement about a cosmic event occurred on July 11, 1991.   We had gone to the Big Island in Hawaii to see a total eclipse of the sun.  The clouds were teasing us, threatening to obscure the sun during the four minutes of totality.  We actually raced with our car, as the time approached, trying to line up a hole in the clouds with the fast disappearing disk of the sun.  We were successful and the world darkened. The shadow of the moon swept toward us across the ocean.  The last rim of brilliance was extinguished and we stared skyward. There was the milky, opalescent corona flaring out in an irregular circle.   How amazing that the sizes and distances of sun and moon create this almost exact blocking phenomenon!  Then we saw something else, unexpected.  At the edge of the dark moon's outline were two red solar flares arcing millions of miles into space beyond the sun's surface.   A magnetic storm was sending hot gases flaring out and then gathering them back in.  I wasn't prepared to see the flares and of course, I could not detect the UV, the protons, the electrons which they shot off into space, but what a thrill to see those red arcs!  The power and the glory!  This I saw with my own eyes on my own star!  Our own "starquake" was a very personal "Wow!"

March 3, 2003