Encounter. Poem by Miki Byrne

Encounter or The Night I Saved The World.


I was talking to an alien. Small and smooth was he.
He energized through my kitchen wall to sit and talk with me.
He said "I've watched your planet Earth from my ship above.
It seems to me you weird folk don't believe in love.

"You puzzle me, you strange earthlings.
You're always making war, and as you never gain from it
It puzzles me all the more? Your vehicles spew out gasses,
You're cutting down your trees. Poisoning your perfect air
And clogging up your seas.

You're all bent on destruction. A global suicide, yet when your earth is dead and gone, there'll be no place to hide. Yet, when we try to help you, you say we don't exist and so refuse to learn from us. How arrogant is this?

My Ancient Ones have sent me to blow humans into space,
place another species in this precious fertile place.
I'll just prepare my death-beam to blast you all away, but
You may have ten minutes reprieve so you might have your say.

He beamed these words inside my head. They really made me think but through my fright I persuaded him to sit down and have a drink. For hours we drank and chatted and put the world to rights
But aliens and booze don't mix. He got too drunk to fly.

I kept him safely through the night. Gave him milk and honey.
We talked of law, religion and love, society and money.
I tried to show him with my words that most of us are good
And he should be broad-minded as all fair people should.

Then the Mother ship called him. He shook me by the hand.
He telepathed "This hasn't gone quite the way I planned.
If you and I can talk this way there's hope for all creation.
I'll go and tell them all back home that we must just be patient".

As he beamed himself on board he turned and waved goodbye.
But said he'd keep on watching from his spaceship in the sky.
And when the future has rolled on and we've all made amends
He'd come again with open arms and we would all be friends.