The Trans-Antarctic Mountain Range Poem by Paul Warren

The cold wind of the Antarctic
Cut any warmth from the sun
We have come to measure the world warming
That has been melting the ice away

A satellite had mapped the whole of the continent
And had found something strange in the Trans-Antarctic Mountains
So an expedition was put together from the Mawson Station
I volunteered to be part of the expedition crew

We had flown to the mountains by a Hercules transport plane
And loaded our snow tractors high with provisions
So we set off in our two snow tractors
As the morning sky was lit by a low lying sun

As we neared the Trans-antarctic Mountain
We could see the snow was melting away from everything
Curiously there were stone structures revealing themselves
These were odd shaped buildings not modern in nature

So we drew lots to see who would go
To explore the stone structures we found
And I drew one of the winners
So I prepared wondering what was in store

We drove to one of the stone buildings
And approached what looked like an entrance
We walked through into what looked like a laboratory perfectly preserved
There were alien looking contraptions everywhere

We decided not to touch anything until we could have it studied
I noted that there appeared to be some things missing
We videotaped all we could see in the room
And left it all as we as had found it

On the way out I noticed some footprints in the snow
These footprints led to snow tractor tracks
We quickly radioed base and a drone to seek out the other snow tractor was sent up
We quickly returned to our base

The drone found the snow tractor after following the tracks
As the camera focused in on the the cabin
We saw that the crew was Chinese and they were armed
And they were heading for an Xi'an Y-20 aeroplane parked in the snow

They stopped at the plane and they stepped out
Next taking a heavy box out of the tractor
The box was quickly loaded on the plane and the tractor as well
In no time the plane took off and flew away
We reported this incident to Canberra

It was about six months after what was the Antarctic Incident
When reports started to come out of Wuhan in China
Of a new disease that started to spread and kill
I wondered what they had found in the Trans-antarctic Mountain Range.

© Paul Warren Poetry