Curious Stories

The Sphinx and the Boy - - - or, The Question
He felt secure between the wings of the great creature.  He leaned back on the great being.

He wondered about so many things.  The sand stretched as far as you could see and beyond.  The sky too had no end.  The creature comforted him, it was so old, but not as old as the sand or the sky.

He felt the question in his heart - - Why aren’t we happy?

The question echoed among the trees and across the desert.  The wind carried it far away, but there was no answer.

The Question
On the Sphinx in Giza
a little boy did sit
thinking of a question
that he directed it.

Why aren’t we happy, he did say,
pondering the thought
for tho he was so very small
this puzzle he had caught.

Perhaps the old and aged
in this ancient land
understood in time
what this question meant.

It echoed close among the trees
and wind across the sand,
but there was no answer
but silence o’er the land.

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The Passageway
One evening there was a service in church.  The choir was singing a special number.  In one place the sopranos sang a melody in a set pattern, repeating a few tones.  Then the tenors sang them in a lower pitch.  When it got to the bass’s it was very powerful.  Everyone was caught up in the song.

Suddenly they heard a grating sound, as of metal - - old metal scraping.  They listened some but finished singing.  Then they walked offstage.  A few went downstairs to see what the noise had been.  Part of the cement floor had caved in and there was a passageway.  More of the singers gathered.  They could hear the chant echoing farther and farther away, deeper into the earth.  At each lowered pitch another grate opened.

They were able to go in it far enough to see what it was.  All along the passageway on one side was ancient art, sculpture, most of it in gold with a layer of fine dust, although there had been little disturbance of the passage hewn in rock.  They went some distance, but it kept going on.  The fine patina of the gold, even with dust, was beyond compare.  They were very ancient.

It turned out that it went thru the earth.  Whole peoples had lived most of their lives underground, hewing the stone farther and farther on.  Succeeding cultures had laid their contribution along the side.  It was a history of people.  It had been preset to open with the singing of the chant, hoping at a later date people would appreciate their work.

It became an international heritage.  People were allowed to see it.  As to its fate, it is hard to tell.

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The Ice Sculptures
Once there was a king who wanted his wife to visit the outreaches of his territory that had not been seen in his lifetime.  They lived far north but these were farther and more north and had not been seen in the memory of the people.  Several barges were prepared for the trip.

When they reached the far northern part the queen’s barge passed thru the little know waters.  She lay on the barge wrapped as would be a mummy.  After a distance they passed several people on the short.  She waved and they waved.  They passed on by.  Far distant were a few more people.  They were entering the land of which they had heard.  Each place the people waved them on.  They did not know their language but one word which the queen said and they were pleased and waved.  Each time she said a word in the language of the groups which they passed.

Soon they entered the ice sculptures.  They were on either side of the water, gigantic hills of ice with messages of the past.  Each generation on back had sculptured or carved in the ice outlines of their homes, or gigantic heads.  Each one was different and changed in time.  There were no people now.  These passageways were rarely seen.  They went on and on back, passing the spot where the last expedition had seen.  They went on for a few hours and then turned back.  The gigantic sculptures were awe inspiring and went on back to the beginning of people it was said, on and on back in time, but no one had seen them.  It was a history of the people.

The barge glided on back to the tiny landing and they waved at each one.  The people were happy that they had gone back and seen the sculptures.

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The Spacemen
I took a ride in outer space
and left the world behind.
The spacemen came to get me
to leave the earth a time.

They ushered me to step inside
the waiting space machine,
round and flattened out on top
and a deep moss green.

They told me to sit up in front
where they had controls
and I sat in the middle
and one on each side so.

They seemed very happy
and tho were rather small
had the biggest smiles,
excited over all.

Why they were excited
I really didn’t know
but they were most happy
in smiles and gestures so.

We took off right away
and rose above the land.
Eagerly they answered me
before they thought I’d ask.

I felt at home with them
for they were in control
and very, very happy
tho why I didn’t know.

As we flew amidst the air
it was clear to see,
a wide and rounded window
just in front of me.

When we were a distance out
were stopped by the patrols
to see if everything alright
and onward we could go.

Brilliant, swift their movements,
and instantly decide
if we go ahead in space
and everything alright.

Each one had a section
that they did patrol,
farther, farther out in space
and were the sole control.

When we were a long way out
and time did hold no more
we traveled very easily,
gliding o’er and o’er.

Finally we were stopped again
by the next patrols
who seemed excited, happy
and myself well know.

They showed space strips of other lands
somewhere out in space
to se if I would like them
or live there for a change.

They were lands most primitive
of animals and men
scarce developed as we know
but how they were back when.

They said that once I lived there
tho they knew that now
I wouldn’t like to be there,
forgotten anyhow.

They had the clearest memory
of everything in space
and knew just how it was,
development and age.

They were so joyed
I came to know
for I came from space
a longtime ago
and was brought to the earth
in its earliest days
to live on the land
from far out in space.

They knew me from my infancy
tho I’d forgotten them
and from the space strips I had lived
so primitive as then.

For certainly I’d forgotten all
the past and that life then
and even not remember
these men who were my friends.

I couldn’t live there any place
and so we turned around,
happy to re-find my friends
and my own life re-found.

They said we could go up again
and travel time to time.
They would come and take me
and happiness we’d find.

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In the Snow
As I was walking in the Arctic
suddenly appeared
a crown-like object in the snow
large and very near.

It was gleaming, full of light
and from the metal too
a pale tone that yet was bright
and filled it thru and thru.

Everything was bright
and inside was a glow
not of anything on earth
or anything we know.

It was full of power
as easily could tell
and I kept my distance
tho looking at it well.

It only came from God
for some purpose there
to show us heightened soul
and make us more aware.

For infrequent travelers
displaying in the snow
an object of the rarest kind
enlightening to the soul.

Tho I could not understand
I knew it did exist
and how far we were on earth
from understanding it.

A Glimpse of Heaven
I looked at heaven one time
and all I saw in there
was computer chips
floating in the air.

They pyramided upward
from the earth below
and this remain of heaven
was all we’d ever know.

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