They had
gentle alien souls,
sweet
liquid alien eyes
and most of
all
those
mellifluous alien voices that sang
of their
home planet
with its
vermillion fields
and its
seven moons riding across
the late
afternoon sky.
We accepted
their invitation
without a
second thought, bridged the void
with open
hearts.
Their
planet was all that they had promised
and so much
more: great groves
of
candy-floss trees, flights of crystalline
birds,
graceful domes dotting
the
horizon; and ultra-modern research
facilities
teeming with specimens
from
uncounted planets, ringing with
screams and
unintelligible pleadings,
dissection
tables
that rarely
had time to dry.
And after
all the moons had finally set,
reflections
from a hundred orbiting
derelicts
shimmered hopefully
in the warm
and
welcoming night sky.
(Originally appeared in the anthology Just
One More Step from Horrified Press)
