(In 1995 a Singaporean and British university teamed up to send a satellite payload into Low Earth Orbit above Singapore. The project was code-named The UoSAT-12 MERLION.)

Now that they are planning to clone embryos
why not a monstrosity that swims and flies
with the head of a lion? Just think: 
it could skywrite ads above the Esplanade,
buzz bathers on the Sands, bowl tourists over
with its not-quite-jet-engine roar.
The military could use it as a living mascot
for the power of combined arms;
the zoo, for its unparalleled biodiversity
and there'd be one more thing to crow about
on August 9th. If the scholar-boys are up to it
they could send the leo to Low Earth Orbit,
one more eye to watch over us, keep our cell-phones
covered, while we pop out SQ Open-Tops
with fur-lined seating, organic heating
(once they do something to the smell).
Seven million visitors a year can't be wrong,
nor can the green life they clutch in their hands,
and for this the spiked building scrapes the sky.
If we had wings home would always be near at hand,
wherever we call our favourite patch of dust.
Anyone can leave orbit when pushed hard enough.

revised: 3 March 2012