the tortoise
remained unflappable
in his indifference
to it all

though
he thought
he smelled cabbage

he does love cabbages

although
he finds less
and less cabbages
in the higher altitudes

also

he is a tortoise

if he were to consider
even
for a nanosecond the sheer impossibility of the fact it was flying

a billionth of a nanosecond

a trillionth

he would plummet
to his doom
and that
of the woman
that rode upon his shell

but she
is a different thing
altogether

cabbages