The Year's Greatest Science Fiction & Fantasy 6

The owl and the pussycat went into space

In a modified Jupiter C.

They took some lox, and standard clocks

And an ape with a Ph.D.

The owl took a sight on the stars above,

And sang to the guide beam’s sound,

“Oh lovely pussy, oh pussy my love,

We should never have left the ground,

The ground,

The ground!

We should never have left the ground.”

Pussy said to the owl, “Our atmosphere’s foul,

And your singing’s upsetting our course.

But let us be wedded and compute where we’re headed,

We will send our decision in Morse.”

So they rocketed gay, the elliptical way,

To the land where the fungus grows.

And there, as he should, a Martian stood,

On a ring instead of his toes,

His toes,

His toes,

On a ring instead of his toes.

“Will you loan us your ring, if the owl doesn’t sing?”

Telepathed back the Martian, “I will.”

So they dragged it away, and were married next day,

By some sort of a thing with a gill.

They dined on yams and boneless hams,

While the Martians espied them in mirth.

And hand in hand on the ruddy sand,

Each thumbed, his nose at the earth,

The earth,

The earth,

Each thumbed his nose at the earth.