Poem: "Against Interstellar Distance"
This poem is from the June 3, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from DW user Perfectworry about "I Love Lucy" in space. It also fills the "aliens" square in my Wordsmith Bingo card. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette.
"Against Interstellar Distance"
At first we did not think of them at all,
did not imagine that our television signals
would reach anyone but ourselves.
Then we began to imagine that
early episodes of I Love Lucy
and that embarrassing rant of Hitler's
would make it out into the galaxy.
In time we calculated the numbers,
signal strength against interstellar distance,
and concluded that it was no use --
nobody would have a telescope
big enough to intercept
such a faint message.
What we did not realize is that
the aliens never needed telescopes.
There was no state-sized antenna,
no base spread like a silver bedsheet
across an unsuspecting moon.
There were only the aliens themselves,
gossamer films woven out of cosmic string,
spread invisibly over vast distances
and capable of catching the softest whisper.
They came to us when
they were least expected
and no longer looked for,
like frosted leaves wafting
Earthward on the solar wind,
following a trail of breadcrumbs
we thought nobody would notice.
"Against Interstellar Distance"
At first we did not think of them at all,
did not imagine that our television signals
would reach anyone but ourselves.
Then we began to imagine that
early episodes of I Love Lucy
and that embarrassing rant of Hitler's
would make it out into the galaxy.
In time we calculated the numbers,
signal strength against interstellar distance,
and concluded that it was no use --
nobody would have a telescope
big enough to intercept
such a faint message.
What we did not realize is that
the aliens never needed telescopes.
There was no state-sized antenna,
no base spread like a silver bedsheet
across an unsuspecting moon.
There were only the aliens themselves,
gossamer films woven out of cosmic string,
spread invisibly over vast distances
and capable of catching the softest whisper.
They came to us when
they were least expected
and no longer looked for,
like frosted leaves wafting
Earthward on the solar wind,
following a trail of breadcrumbs
we thought nobody would notice.