The Ballad Of Wernher Von Braun Poem by Kalikiano Kalei

Dr. Wernher von Braun was notably bound

To play with his rockets all day.

A few went up, but too many went down,

To his and his colleagues' dismay.

Quite soon he was told by some Wehrmacht scold

That his rockets had all better work!

Or he'd find out at some point that he'd run out of time

And Der Fuehrer would go quite berserk!

Not content then to blow a second launch 'go',

Young Wernher gathered up all his tools,

When he saw Uncle Joe, with his Soviets in tow

And went quickly away, not extending his stay,

To American lines with his space plans intact,

But his loyalties quite up for grabs,

To spend the next years (with few pauses for beers)

Testing moon rockets near the sand dunes and crabs.

With NASA in charge, by now funding his work,

Our man Wernher began changing his tune,

And built great big rockets with just a few quirks.

They no longer went 'BOOM', when launched to the moon!

And low and behold, with his word good as gold,

Wernher's Saturn lifted up into space,

And our 'man on the moon' was there none too soon

When we won the great lunar space race!