Poem: "The Walking Trees"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem is spillover from the June 3, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from rosieknight. It also fills the "Mobile / Carnivorous Plants" square in my 6-1-14 card for the genprompt_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored via the general fund, based on an audience poll. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.


"The Walking Trees"


"Trees are attacking our poolhouse,"
the caller said. "Please make them stop."

Asterope and Taygeta looked at each other,
and then the twin sisters giggled.
"Easy City gets the weirdest calls,"
Asterope said.

"Don't laugh," the dispatcher said.
"I'm sending you to deal with this.
Asterope, your solar powers should
serve to dissuade them, or if necessary,
destroy them completely.
Taygeta, your super-strength and
flexibility help draw the trees
away from the threatened property."

The call had come from Naples, Florida --
the Super Power Organizational & Operational Nexus
only had a handful of bases around the nation --
so they had to get a teleporter to carry them.

The trees turned out to be red mangroves,
and they were indeed dismantling a poolhouse
one long thin board at a time.
They moved slowly compared to animals,
but quite fast for trees.

Taygeta grabbed the nearest tree
and tried to haul it towards the coast.
It creaked in protest.

"They're stronger than they look,"
she panted, muscles flexing
under her fair skin.

Asterope framed her hands into a lens
to focus the sun's power, aiming
a narrow beam of heat at the trees.
With a sizzle, smoke began to rise.

Then the nearest tree grabbed her,
its thick root wrapping around her
so that she couldn't use her arms.

Taygeta struggled to pry it loose,
but trees were powerful creatures.
By the time she succeeded,
Asterope was panting for breath.

"Maybe we should try something else,"
Taygeta said, eyeing the hostile foliage.

So Taygeta wound her elastic body
around the nearby palm trees,
using them as anchors, while she
looped around the mangroves and
pulled them away from the poolhouse.

Asterope stood back a safe distance
and sent little bolts of sunlight
zinging at the trees to make them move.

Sulkily the mangroves let go of the boards
and backed out of the caller's yard.
They were trying to get at the neighbor's garage
when someone from wildlife management
arrived to take them to the Everglades.

As they herded the trees onto the truck,
Asterope realized that there was
a blue-and-orange inflatable pool dragon
wedged high in the branches.

"Let them keep it," Taygeta said, giggling again.

* * *

Notes:

Asterope (Agatha Megalos) -- She has fair skin, hazel eyes, and long wavy golden-brown hair. She favors bold pure colors, especially red. Her heritage is Greek-American. She uses welding to create impressive metal sculptures. Her solar abilities include photosynthesis, igniting or melting things, and focusing sunlight into a cutting beam.
Origin: Unable to conceive, her mother prayed to Aphrodite and later bore twin girls. Agatha's power manifested at puberty.
Uniform: Red dexflan with a white stylized sun on the chest.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Popular, Expert (+4) Sculptor, Good (+2) Intellect
Poor (-2) Hothead
Powers: Master (+6) Sun Powers
Limitation: Her Sun Powers only work in daylight.
Motivation: To stand against the powers of darkness.

Taygeta (Tanith Megalos) -- She has fair skin, hazel eyes, and long wavy golden-brown hair. Her heritage is Greek-American. She favors hot neon colors such as fuchsia or turquoise. Tanith uses her superpowers most often for coastal rescues and repairs.
Origin: Unable to conceive, her mother prayed to Aphrodite and later bore twin girls. Tanith's power manifested at puberty.
Uniform: Fuchsia dexflan with a rounded Greek labyrinth on the front in white.
Qualities: Good (+2) Dexterity, Good (+2) Friends in the Coast Guard, Good (+2) Physics, Good (+2) Resilient, Good (+2) Water Sports
Poor (-2) Sticking With It
Powers: Expert (+4) Super-Strength, Good (+2) Elastic Form
Motivation: To bend without breaking.

* * *

Asterope and Taygeta are named after two of the Pleiades, seven sisters in Greek mythology and also a star cluster.

Easy City is a metroplex in Louisiana. It surrounds Lake Ponchartrain, spanning the cities of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Slidell.

Naples, Florida has some of the most expensive real estate in the country.

Mangroves, and especially red mangroves, form a vital part of the Everglades ecosystem. They also appear along much of the warm coastline, holding it in place.

This is the pool dragon carried off by the mangroves.

Comments

[johnpalmer]

The 12 year old in me now notes that in addition to the visual almost-pun (not technically, more of a "ooh, it looks not entirely unlike a naughty word"), the company by that name makes lubricants. The world is a strange place.

(And I never, ever, ever would have thought to look up the spelling, nor guessed the s came after the ch - thank you.)

*laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yeah, my inner 12-year-old boy got a giggle over that too.