I remember dawn's assault on Greenlee
Charged with shadows darting through the sky—
Dark angels, raptors on the hunt
Twixt spiraling cliffsides, clouds awry
As the suns rend all the stars asunder
From depths on depths in former night,
To wrap around the nebular host
As daylight sears their trembling flight.

Eyes cannot handle the cloudy daytime there,
Minds squirm from its benumbing glow,
But evening's relief is a beginning
As that intrusive light accedes, consents to go...

With sundown and sundown and sundown,
The stars appear betwixt the mists.
The nebula builds like a daydream in the sky;
Heaven unfolds an artist's reverie, and twists
The heart to soar in an angelic congregation—
And so till the first of Greenlee's suns returns
Past twisted horizons to shake the world awake.
And once again we wait, while the planet burns.

Time has a way of changing things.
We never matched our trips well,
You and I. We were the same age once,
But today I'm older due to FTL;
Sometimes I'm younger. Shali Dunn,
I miss you— in more ways than one.

Well, we was razzin this Tick out on Ryman's Slick
And she was bright-greenin nice for the crowd
O'course me and the boys was makin some noise
When a Chatterhound fizzed though the door.
You coulda told it was glum by the shine on its stun
But we was buzzed and a laughin too loud
So they was two of us down fore we looked around
And then a couple of us more on the floor.

Now old Kankaree Bob had a Lyrean lob
He'd scored past the customs that week
And with a left-handed toss he flipped it across
That big buggy's paws fore it blew
But the Chatterhound popped old Bob fore it stopped
And its wingcases put up a shriek
And our Ticker matched it with an unholy ratchet
Then unfolded its wings and it flew.

Straight into the Hound it went with a bound
And for those of us still able to see
It merged with the beast until I at least
Couldn't tell where one stopped or began it.
The being most rare we saw standing there
Turned round and left glowing with glee.
That was when we first knew that Tickers weren't two,
But one species on old Ryman's planet.