Dad has retired from the buses

Dad has retired from the buses
After 42 years at the wheel.
He says he don’t know what the fuss is
For you’re only as old as you feel.

When he started, his route was a short one,
From the Moon out to Io and back,
Though the journey was often a fraught one
With asteroids lying ‘cross his track.

And then he became interstellar
On the hyperspace bus to P.C.
‘Twas there that he met Barbarella,
Or “Mum” to my brothers and me.

He was struck by her radiant beauty
As she served her sweet pancakes and toast
And after his next tour of duty,
They were married on Triton’s Gold Coast.

Thirty years now of hyperspace jetting
In and out of the Great Neptoid Gate
Has meant that he’s only been getting
Old at a much slower rate.

I’ve made one short space hop to Priam,
‘Tis a sedent’ry life that I’ve had,
And it’s meant consequentially I am
About seven years older than Dad.