***Welcome to Beastly Tales. Each has a message, a moral. All are meant to have an element of humour. Naturally, any names included do not depict real folk but are included as part of the joke.***

***All rights reserved.
(As with Beastly Banter Beastly Tales is written and illustrated by Richard Hersel.)***

***Thank you for your following.
Richard Hersel***


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<h1>BEASTLY TALES</h1>

<h1>ROCKETMAN</h1>

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***Thought Albert Grimm, “A rocket is what I do need,”
“A rocket, that can travel at super high speed.”
“With such a rocket, I have a real notion,”
“I could rapidly cross the Atlantic Ocean.”
“Departing New York about mid morning,”
“I could zoom into Paris, without any warning.”
“In fact, in time for an early lunch,”
“Or, with a tail wind, could even be brunch.”***


***“Sadly, I can’t just walk into a store,”
“To purchase such a rocket, and more,”
“I’ll have to build it, from tail fins up,”
“To the nose cone, in the shape of a cup.”
And so, he soon set right to work,
All his friends thought him a real jerk.
But Albert Grimm would have none of that,
He embarked on the project without a drop of a hat!***


***“I’ll power the rocket with liquid butane,”
“Now, how to steer it?  I’ll think with my brain”
Aileron flaps on the tail fins,
Such a notion produced large grins.
And, to reverse, a powered tail thruster,
A concept designed to be a real speed buster.
Before long, it was launch pad time,
An experimental launch, it would be no crime.
The countdown started, it was all systems go!
At first the lift-off seemed painfully slow.
Then, a surge of speed, the booster kicked in,
The engines roared loudly, Oh! What a din!
In seemingly no time at all, they were over the Atlantic.
Onwards ever onwards, a progress frantic.***


***Then suddenly, there they were, over France,
The rocket continued, a most merry dance!
They had over-shot the intended target,
Onwards still, but they would how far get?
At last they neared Drogobych, near the Carpathian mountains.
Then the fuel ran out, in diminishing fountains,
The engines coughed and spluttered, the nose went down.
Albert, shocked, still managed a frown.
On the ground the Commandant roared, “Incoming missile!”
He suspected the rocket contained material fissile!
The defensive missiles roared up, up and away.
It was proving to be a most interesting day!***


***Albert Grimm looked out through his port-hole,
Saw the missiles roaring up.  Would he be caught whole?
Or could he still manoeuvre to avoid being hit?
This was not like lunch in Paris, not one little bit!
The missiles had missed him by a hairs-breadth,
A tricky manoeuvre to escape certain death.
Just then, the cockpit parachute deployed,
Down to earth he floated feeling overjoyed.
“I’ve made it!”  He thought as he hit the ground.
“Not Paris, that’s true!  But a new city I’ve found.”
“Drogobych, that’s where I can have lunch.”
Then he heard Jackboots on gravel crunch.
The Commandant tapped on the cockpit door,
Rudely demanding he open up, what is more!***


***Albert Grimm unlocked the door,
A line of armed soldiers is what he saw,
“You are my prisoner,” The Commandant said.
“One false move, and you’ll be shot in the head!”
This didn’t sound like an invitation to lunch,
“I’m in a pickle,” thought Albert, “That is my hunch.”
Drogobych is in the Ukraine, not Russia, at least.
That might have been fatal, with the Bear Beast.
Albert waived his little American flag.
“I’m American,” he said, thinking rescue to be in the bag!
The Commandant seemed to be unimpressed,
This interloper here had with the Ukraine messed.
“You will be taken to Kiev for interrogation,”
“You have caused an International Incident with our Nation.”
“Threatening us with an I.C.B.M.”
“From such action, a war could stem!”
“By the time your interrogation is through,”
“We’ll have built a special Gulag for you!”
Now Albert thought this to be pretty Grimm.
He’d ask to see the American Consul quite prim.
He supposed he might have broken a rule or two,
But could expect to be released when proceedings were through.***


***So much of this is what transpired,
His initiative, even the Ukrainians admired.
Said they, “If you decide to do this again,”
“Be a good chap, and tell us when!”***

![rocketman.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmYDNQvEapcwmvgXkMgQpcGCMhLFhHvaXyBPtUJneYvh9s/rocketman.png)

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