My brother and I
Are sure having fun.
We’re building a rocket
To go up to the sun.

They’ve already gone
To the moon and to Mars,
And driven around
In weird little cars.

But there’s nobody else
Who’s done what we’ve done.
‘Cause we’ve planned a trip
To go up to the sun!

We’re making our rocket
Out of real neat stuff.
When we get to the sun,
It’s got to be tough.

For the engine we used
Our old garbage can.
We’ve washed it out some
But we’ll still need a fan.

A big cardboard box
Will be our cockpit.
My brother is small
So we will both fit.

Our mother made lunch.
We’ll eat on the way.
There’s no room for Spot
So he’ll have to stay.

Now Billy the Bully,
Who thinks he’s so smart,
Made fun of our rocket
Right from the start.

He told us the sun
Is one hundred degrees!
He said it would cook us
Like Mama cooks peas.

But we’ve got a plan,
We’ll show him who’s right.
The sun won’t be hot;
We’re going at night!

Rocket Scientists is based on an old Aggie joke. All Texans know what an Aggie joke is, but for the rest of you, they are an attempt to make alumni of Texas A&M University look dumb. We Aggies, however, love to tell them on ourselves.

The joke was about the Aggie Aeronautical Engineering Department building a rocket to the sun. I thought that it would make a cute poem about kids. My fish farm partner’s sons turn everything into a space ship, even their tree house. It didn’t take much imagination for me to transform the mean-spirited joke into a cute kids’ poem.