October Tale

OCTOBER TALE Go south and follow the sun’s traverse As it heads t’ward Capricorn When days and nights are in equipoise And slight chills happily born Go beyond the wide stream where Siegfried roved Past the dark forest’s sylvan span You then will arrive where Mad Ludvig dreamed In Bavaria’s beauteous land Where the earth undulates in verdant waves Then soars to snowy inclines There Lies the fair city of Munich that’s loved By devotees of barley wines It was there we came one day long past Not for feasting on Isar’s bank But to bring greater mathematical power To the Institute of Max Plank Full many there came at that season to savour The music, the ale, the carousing So there was no room for us at the inns We must go beyond for our housing From satellite town we drove one night To the heart of the celebrations Where we lifted big steins and swayed and sang With numerous libations ‘Till the sky was long dark and the moon shone pale Through the mist that rose from the fields Then we set forth again to our transient home Lest the sun should find us revealed My colleague drove and I with a map upon my knee, directed At a crossing wide I called - ‘Go Left!’ The result was not as expected The new road that we were now upon Looked fine on first inspection But then we saw all cars save ours Advanced in reverse direction ‘We’re on the wrong side!’was my next cry ‘Cross over to the right!’ The driver quickly followed my word So we might survive that night As we moved again on our altered path Still progressing on true course vector We began to vibrate and oscillate To a vertical misdirector With a bumpety bump and a jolt and a jar We soon perceived, jeepers creepers! That the track we were on was the permanent one Made of steel, two rails on sleepers Just one more correction should put us right We’d be on the right road, on our way But then half way on and half way off We were caught like a lion’s buffet With wheels a-spinning on slippery rail I pushed with might and main And with efforts having but little avail I looked up, down the line, saw a train Now was this a time for a stiff upper lip Or was it a time to panic The dilemma resolved by the advent of A miracle Germanic From out of the mist like a phantom craft A vehicle emerged, came to rest Four young men ejected, took one corner each Restored car to a roadway blest Then with smiles and waves and a Bayerische ‘Gruss Gott’ They vanished into the night Two more foolish Octoberfest travellers were saved From a well known Eisenbahn plight So that’s how we survived to tell the tale Of peril - no moonshine! On one chill misty October night in Bayern We drove up the railway line First submitted: November 2017 Contest: Let the Pens Flow - Narrative Poetry Contest Sponsored by: Jenish Somadas |