poetree
"Aliens" by Kim Addonizio
Now that you're finally happy
you notice how sad your friends are.
One calls you from a pay phone, crying.
Her husband has cancer; only a few months,
maybe less, before his body gives in.
She's tired all the time, can barely eat.
What can you say that will help her?
You yourself are ravenous.
You come so intensely with your new lover
you wonder if you've turned
into someone else. Maybe an alien
has taken over your body
in order to experience the good life
here on earth: dark rum and grapefruit juice,
fucking on the kitchen floor,
then showering together and going out
to eat and eat. When your friends call--
the woman drinking too much, the one who lost
her brother, the ex-lover whose right ear
went dead and then began buzzing--
the alien doesn't want to listen.
More food, it whines. Fuck me again,
it whispers, and afterwards we'll go to the circus.
The phone rings. Don't answer it.
You reach for a fat eclair,
bite into it while the room fills
with aliens--wandering, star-riddled creatures
who vibrate in the rapturous air,
longing to come down and join you,
looking for a place they can rest.
Now that you're finally happy
you notice how sad your friends are.
One calls you from a pay phone, crying.
Her husband has cancer; only a few months,
maybe less, before his body gives in.
She's tired all the time, can barely eat.
What can you say that will help her?
You yourself are ravenous.
You come so intensely with your new lover
you wonder if you've turned
into someone else. Maybe an alien
has taken over your body
in order to experience the good life
here on earth: dark rum and grapefruit juice,
fucking on the kitchen floor,
then showering together and going out
to eat and eat. When your friends call--
the woman drinking too much, the one who lost
her brother, the ex-lover whose right ear
went dead and then began buzzing--
the alien doesn't want to listen.
More food, it whines. Fuck me again,
it whispers, and afterwards we'll go to the circus.
The phone rings. Don't answer it.
You reach for a fat eclair,
bite into it while the room fills
with aliens--wandering, star-riddled creatures
who vibrate in the rapturous air,
longing to come down and join you,
looking for a place they can rest.