Verduna Poem by Paul Butters

Beyond beyond there is a world:
Verduna is her name.

Within our realm,
Yet in another universe,
She basks in sunshine from an orange sun.
No arctic wastes to chill her temperate clime,
Just leagues and leagues of sub-tropical paradise,
And equatorial desert plains.

Like Earth she is a world of azure-blue,
Her sweeping oceans teeming to the brim with life.
She has no seasons: summer all year long,
Her jagged mountains draped with endless trees.

Those crags that overshadow parkland plains:
A verdant shrubbery decked with flowers of every hue,
Attended by clouds of butterflies,
By flocks of colourful songbirds,
And giant stingless bees!

This tangled undergrowth gives way
To juicy grasslands green.
The people on this planet - coloured orange-
Are children of the sun:
Blessed with being immortal,
To play, so free, with clawless cougars, on lawns
And lazy beaches lined by sentinel palms.

Look! See them riding the backs of giant bees!
Come join us here in their home village -
Helletrius - in Qualaduxa: a Middasian land -
A place with history
That time forgot;

Somewhere where you can come
And join in all the fun:
Verduna!