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You can read more original fiction from Emily Chesley in the Meanderings of the Emily Chesley Reading Circle<

The Friendly Void™

Editor’s Note: Scholars are of two minds as to whether Emily Chesley’s 1913 poem "The Friendly Void" was composed in reaction to the disastrous sinking of the luxury liner Titanic in 1912, or simply in response to a surfeit of traveling on Chesley’s part. Her evocative invitation to "Fly the Friendly Void" demonstrates Chesley’s instinctive and brilliant grasp of linguistic and social nuance, and appears to have been the inspiration – decades later – for the highly successful marketing slogan of United Airlines, "Fly the Friendly Skies." Unsurprisingly, Emily Chesley’s estate is still in litigation about this probable trademark infringement.

The Friendly Void™
by Emily Chesley

In 2057, I was thrilled to be informed
That transport interplanetary soon would be the norm
My loins suffused with wanderlust, my yen for travel buoyed
I packed my bags and set straight out to "Fly the Friendly Void"™

I booked a first-class cabin, leather chaise and queen-size bed
But the space-line overbooked and shipped me cattle-class instead
The narrow seats and pungent cabin left me quite annoyed
It wasn’t how I set my sights to "Fly the Friendly Void"™

"The Friendly Void"™, ain’t half as friendly
As all those flashy advertisements do repeat
I bruised my fair, curvaceous buttocks
Upon that unforgiving, splint’ry wooden seat…
And never got to try the satin sheets!

The next try was my honeymoon, a top-drawer stellar cruise
But just the day before we heard the headline on the news
They said our liner crashed into an errant asteroid
Which made it rather difficult to "Fly the Friendly Void"™

"The Friendly Void"™, ain’t half as friendly
As all those greedy travel agents do declare
We spent two weeks in downtown Cleveland
Instead of basking in the glow of solar flares…
And never got a refund of our fare!

A weekend jaunt to Saturn was a dreadful interlude
The painted flying waitress was insufferably rude
I’d never heard such language from a lowly serving ‘droid
How dare it be so vulgar, then say "Fly the Friendly Void"™?

"The Friendly Void"™, ain’t half as friendly
As all those pitchmen at the spaceport make it sound
When next I plan a grand vacation
I shall be sure to keep my feet upon the ground…
And never book a ticket Venus-bound!

Now only in my dreams do I take passage through the night
Astride a mighty cylinder, a stogie taking flight
"A good cigar is just a smoke," to quote from Sigmund Freud (1)
He’s clearly never seen me as I "Fly the Friendly Void"™

Emily Chesley, 1913 ("Scholarship" by D. Bartholomew Lurie)

Notes:

1) Sigmund Freud's most important and frequently reiterated claim – that with psychoanalysis he had invented a new science of the mind – remains the subject of much critical debate and controversy. Chesleyan scholars are of at least two minds about whether Emily Chesley actually met Sigmund Freud, but they are united in their opinion that Chesley’s ribald rhyming reference to this leading psycho-sexual thinker who, like her "uncle" Michael Flannigan, was considered by some to be a failed inventor, is "significant."