They carved a symbol
on the moon, Earth-side,
so we knew they meant business;
some fools who tried
to Second Amendment them,
just plain vaporized,
and good riddance.
Promised to trade their tech
for some things we didn’t need or use;
not the vaporizer, heck no,
but antigrav disks, 4D flatscreens,
rejuv machines, trash gobblers,
free and clear they said, with,
as it turned out,
their glassy hands behind their backs,
fingers crossed.
All that good stuff crumbled to dust
after they scarpered with every trace
of rare-earth metal we had,
the Eiffel tower, Great Wall of China,
and other oddments of culture,
even Taylor Swift, and that hurt,
but what really burns is they lied
and I guess there’s no Galactic
Space Force gonna help
the little guy,
same as everywhere on Earth.
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David C. Kopaska-Merkel, a semi-retired geologist, won the 2006 Rhysling award for best long poem (for a collaboration with Kendall Evans), and edits Dreams & Nightmares magazine (since 1986). He has edited Star*line, an issue of Eye to the Telescope, and several Rhysling anthologies, co-edited the 2023 Dwarf Stars anthology, has served as SFPA president, and is an SFPA Grandmaster. His poems have been published in Asimov’s, Analog, Strange Horizons, and more than 200 other venues. His latest collection, Some Disassembly Required, winner of the Elgin award, was published by Diminuendo Press in 2022. Blog: dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com |