Poem: "Jumping the Fence"
This poem is from the August 6, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from marina_bonomi, siliconshaman, labelleizzy, je_reviens, and Anthony Barrette. It has been sponsored by technoshaman.
Jumping the Fence
It was the nomads
who first peopled the Earth,
roving out of Africa into Europe
and all the lands beyond,
setting sail in search of new sunsets
until there was no more to discover
but that the planet was round.
The settlers trudged along behind them,
always looking for a place to put down roots,
and in time they grew more numerous and powerful.
They pinned down the nomads, here and there,
and made them pretend to be residents.
But the hearts of the nomads
would not go into the ground,
and their eyes turned ever upward
toward the sequined tent of the sky.
In time, people went to space.
They kicked around the dust of the Moon
and then came home.
The nomads looked at each other in disgust.
They pushed past the settlers,
jumped the fence of the atmosphere
and headed for the rocky hills of the asteroid belt.
They went out, and out, into the dark yonder
of the galaxy where the settlers
might find them eventually
but could never pen them in again.
The Roma found a way
to glaze the ceramic tiles
that insulated their ships from heat
so that they blazed in vivid colors
just like a vardo should,
harvesting the power
of the suns as they passed.
It was the Bedouins
who excelled at finding water
wherever they went,
marking each oasis they located
for those who might follow,
planting gardens -- even as simple
as a green slick of algae --
anywhere they might grow.
The Tuareg took their drum groups
into the far reaches of space,
their confederations no longer
divided by national borders,
but free to roam and signal
and invent the ansible.
It was the Sioux
who discovered the star-horses,
spacefaring aliens the size of asteroids
patched black and white like Indian ponies,
each one able to carry a spaceship
on its back like a strange silver saddle.
The nomads didn't mingle much --
their ways were too different,
now that they could be what they wanted
instead of what the settlers wanted them to be --
so they rarely traded people or goods
outside their own kind.
What they did trade was news,
including fresh ways of making things,
and word of where the best resources might be found.
There was no point in arguing or fighting now
with a whole galaxy to wander through --
it was better to wave at fellow wayfarers passing by.
Now and then they would find themselves
together in the same place at the same time,
and perhaps a Tuareg Amenokal
would trade skills with a Bedouin Sheikh.
And the settlers?
They inherited the Earth,
which for some inconceivable reason
was all they wanted.
* * *
Notes:
Read more about the Roma, Bedouin, Tuareg, and Sioux people.
An ansible is a faster-than-light communication device.