The Space-Child's Mother Goose

“Pussy cat, pussy cat,
What do you see
That enlarges your tail
To this noble degree?”

“I see a small
Four-dimensional man
Who has recently landed
From Aldebaran.”

“Pussy cat, pussy cat,
What do you hear
To cause that irrational
Twitch of your ear?”

“I hear the lullaby
Mother cats croon
To the play-weary kittens
On Jupiter’s moon.”

There was a man in our town,
An Astrophysicist,
Who found a place
In hyperspace
By just a twist of wrist.

But when he sought the Nearer Now
And gave another twist,
He found that he’d
Become, somehow,
A Cyberneticist.

Little Bo-Peep
Has lost her sheep.
The radar has failed to find them.
They’ll all, face to face,
Meet in Parallel Space,
Preceding their leaders behind them.

Probable-Possible, my black hen,
She lays eggs in the Relative When.
She doesn’t lay eggs in the Positive Now
Because she’s unable to postulate How.

A Follower of Goddard
And a Rising Astrogator
Were agreed that superthermics
Was a spatial hot pertater.

They reached a Super-Nova
On a bicycle named Beta
And I ‘d tell you more about it
But they fused — with all the data.

Little Miss Muffet
Sits on her tuffet
In a nonchalant sort of a way.
With her force-field around her
The spider, the bounder,
Is not in the picture today.

Data scrutator,
Extrapolator,
You forecast by rigadoon.
You used to extoll
The Gallup Poll
But now you are shooting the moon.

“Mary, Mary,
Quite contrary,
How are your hydroponics?”
“I’ve Dixie Belles
And chanterelles
All singing in supersonics.”

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
At three o’clock he had his great fall.
The King set the Time Machine back to two;
Now Humpty’s unscrambled and good as new.

Flappity, Floppity, Flip!
The Mouse on the Möbius Strip.
The Strip revolved —
The Mouse dissolved In a chronodimensional skip.

This little pig built a space-ship;
This little pig paid the bill;
This little pig made isotopes;
This little pig ate a pill;
And this little pig did nothing at all,
But he’s just a little pig still.

Little Jack Horner
Sits in a corner
Extracting cube roots to infinity—
An assignment for boys
That will minimize noise
And produce a more peaceful vicinity.

Hey Diddle Diddle
Distribute the Middle
The Premise controls the Conclusion
The Disjunctive affirms
That the Diet of Worms
Is a Borbetomagic confusion.

Sing a song of saucers
Flown from outer space.
Four and twenty generals,
Crimson in the face.

The saucers conquered gravity
So they all began to spin —
And Gentlemen, if you’ll pardon me,
This is where I came in.

This is the Theory Jack built.

This is the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is the Turn of a Plausible Phrase
That thickened the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is Chaotic Confusion and Bluff
That hung on the Turn of a Plausible Phrase
And thickened the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is the Cybernetics and Stuff
That covered Chaotic Confusion and Bluff
That hung on the Turn of a Plausible Phrase
And thickened the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is the Button to start the Machine
To make with the Cybernetics and Stuff
To cover Chaotic Confusion and Bluff
That hung on the Turn of a Plausible Phrase
And thickened the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is the Space-Child with Brow Serene
Who pushed the Button to start the Machine
That made with the Cybernetics and Stuff
Without Confusion, exposing the Bluff
That hung on the Turn of a Plausible Phrase
And, Shredding the Erudite Verbal Haze
Cloaking Constant K,
Wrecked the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
And Demolished the Theory Jack built.