PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

We watched for them over many decades.
We kept our monitors tuned, our weapons ready.
Unsurprised and unflinching, we saw them emerge,
stealthily, from the spaceward side of Mars,
and the spaceword sides of Phobos and Deimos,
a thousand ships in less than two hours time,
headed earthward.
They had to know about our shields;
about the beams we could point at them, to destroy.
We had made no secret about these developments.
We had broadcast their existence, daily, hourly even;
messages transmitted outward,
warnings that could easily be interpreted
by any species capable of space travel.
Still they came toward us.
"My god," we thought, "what hubris!"
We took out the leading edge of their fleet---
they knew we meant business before they looked earthward:
a dozen vessels, and their compliments,
pulverized to microscopic dust
(we had practiced on plenty of asteroids,
meteors, and the occasionally retired satellite).
After the first volley, they halted;
only a moment's hesitation, then they scattered,
fleeing at hard right angles from us.
Our mounted telescopes had them in distant sight.
They reformed their lines as before . . .

and then headed away . . .

away from earth, away from mars,

fleeing sunward until we lost them in the glare.

Seventy-two hours we remained on alert,
"at the ready," if you will, but they did not return.

For the next three days, the whole world celebrated.
Governments decreed a holiday,
people gave each other expensive, meaningful gifts.

Then a message came---from the Martians, from the place
beyond the sun to which they had gone;
garbled it was, in the mounting interference
that we had just begun to notice and could not explain.

"Message to earth . . . " "Easily interpreted
"by any species capable of interplanetary war . . ."

"Insidious force . . . outside the system . . ."
"from somewhere else in the galaxy, headed
"toward us, toward you, toward any
"planet bearing life of any kind.
" . . . destructive of life of any kind, it is . . ."
"We came to offer . . . escape . . .
"take you, in these vessels, with us . . .
"mobile, not orbital, avoid its notice.

". . . could have taken you with us, sufficient room,
"earth-like conditions . . . could have brought you safely . . ."

"You fired upon us . . . such hubris, as you call it . . ."

"We know what speculations entertain you:
"you have imagined nothing like it;
"even your devil is nothing like it . . .

"preceded by interference of all transmissions,
"static, exponentially expanding to all frequencies and carriers ,
"a pre-emptory strike against calls for help . . ."

". . . could have brought you safely away, but you fired upon us. . . ."

Starward