I.
"Why, this planet is a very strange place,"
Said the Alien to the Man on the Moon.
"How so, it is our only and our homely base,
And I hold it more dear than this cratered balloon."
"Then tell me," spoke the Alien, "why are you here?
If this world up there is the only thing to you so dear?"
The man sighed and shook his head inside his suit.
"You cannot see behind the clouds tightly grouped.
That blue planet holds life so many and has colour
Like you have never seen in any world other."
"Oh, but I have, human," spoke the Alien with a grin
"I have seen many and also many I came to win."
The man looked up to his world suddenly afraid to speak
And the Alien pointed out that his future had turned bleak:
"You fight among yourselves like no other species I have met,
The waters are fouling with all the chemicals you have it fed.
And you ruin your life with isotopes cast carelessly aside.
And those that survive you kill with bullets, nothing abides!"
The Alien cast an angry look to the suddenly small feeling man
And spoke on about the nastiness of all that humans can
But when the Alien stopped the raging bellow and angry words
The man spoke up quietly, plainly not without hurts.
"you are so right, Alien friend, but there is more than what you see.
The clouds do hide more beauty that possibly can be."
"Then tell me, ironic little Man, I do not see all that you claim.
I see fighting and fouling, a destructive force, so much to blame!
Homo Sapiens, the name so says, is no not clever anywhere.
This species rages and has nothing but blackness to share!"
"But do you not see the love and hurt when someone is dead?
Do you not see the joy when the young ones are born and met?
Why do you not look at the art that we make and mould?
And at the sculptures of stone or wood or made of silver and gold?
And the beauty of science for us to learn more of life
And the neatness and order to all that we strive?
Yes, we kill and murder and have bad things on our slate
And we do foul the earth determining our fate.
But all that we do and say and make that is our nature
It is who we are that brings us closer and wiser to the future
It is the sole reason that you and I have met
And the only reason that you and I are not you dead."
The Alien looked up into the void and saw missiles appear
All ready for leaving their shells ready for him to sear
His own kind watched and too set weapons at the ready
But still waited with an Alien calmness and very steady
The man looked into the Alien's face and smiled but faintly
"As I see it, our fates are nothing but very tainted."
The man spoke softly and hurt painted on his bleak face
And the Alien put his tendril fingers at the suit's very base.
Both looked up to the blue planet floating in space
And the sun burned its hard light across the man's face.
The Alien did smile then and nodded but slightly
And his fingers drummed at them helmet then curled lightly
"You and I, Man on the Moon, are very similar in life,
We are ready to conquer and ready for any strife.
But I can see now that you are smart as not to pay the price.
You are as curious as I and are as full, when needed, with lies!
But you are also ready to defend what is not me and mine
You seek wisdom in space which is certainly a good sign.
And you do value life, otherwise I and we would not be here
It seems you value that planet as you said truly dear."
The man sighed and watched the Alien toss denying his head
And the vessels from outer galaxy withdrew, upon which the man said
"you could have blasted us from the very sky we've just over won.
But you do not, instead you leave and I know soon be gone."
The Alien nodded once more, and like a human sighed very deep
"It is true, but let me tell you what causes this need.
It seems to me that you have value in spite of your destructiveness
And you do have honor and are bright in spite of certain foolishness.
It is not something that can not be overcome
And let met tell you, I know... we know... it happens to some.
So let me leave you in peace and wonder about all that I have said
And remind you that there is still future for this people I have just met
You must go home, go down to this blue planet of yours
And tell them to put all that horrid violence behind locked doors.
When we meet again, say in a millennium of three,
I hope we then can shake hands like true friends we will be."
The man turned in the Alien's grip and took his fingers from his neck
And with the sight of all the lingering missiles at his back,
The man firmly shook the Alien's tender hand, held it tight
And nodded solemnly before they all again took flight.
II.
"Why, this planet is a very strange place to be,"
Said the Man to the Alien on the Moon.
"How so, it is our only and our homely base,
And I hold it very dear, this glassy balloon."
"But I see nothing but gray and white light.
Nothing else, no life comes to me within my sight."
The Alien pointed to the white ball that was his home.
"What you see is the colour of our protective dome.
It is there to hold our cities and houses in which we dwell,
And to keep the air clean and water inside the shell."
The man shook his head wondering why this had to be.
Earth had still the greens and waters blue for all to see.
The cities had thrived but only little and not on Terra alone,
The Moon too and Triton, Europe sounded now the earthling's tone.
Earth's destruction had been stopped by clever thoughts,
And Man had ceased the chopping of tropical boughs.
All oceans and seas had been cleaned of filth and dirt.
The air had been filtered, removing all the particles that hurt.
The ozone layer was healed of all the gaps it contained,
And the land had been tidied from all the waste it had stained.
The Alien thought hard and deep for minutes stretching long,
"You must understand, it is here that I belong.
And as you see, this is where we stand for many a year,
The city world has too many of our souls to bear.
But we are afraid to leave this system we hold close to our hearts
We are too old and tired to room in shuttles and speeding crafts."
The man did not understand this and told the Alien so.
But the Alien pointe his long finger to the world below
"When I sought out your world three millennia ago,
I could but warn you of our fate and tell you no,
But I know that would have brought the fear in your mind
And your thoughts would be hostile but you would also be blind,
Never you would have ceased the dominance of man over land.
And all there would be left would be hot and active sand,
Bare and naked the Earth, your world would have become.
Of all the hatred and coldness that is the very nature of Human's Song
The weapons in space you pointed out to me
Would have found meaning and wiped out whole of humanity.
I could do nothing but point out the violence in your blood,
And stop the wars that would have washed the Earth like a flood.
It was up to you to change the course your future was taking,
And up to you to reroute and seek other worlds for the making.
So I left with only words, seeing there was still hope for you.
And said nothing about our fate which is this world, lacking green and blue.
Our life has stopped when space ran out, and there was nowhere to run,
And there was fear of leaving our system and never again see our sun.
So we stagnated and stacked our houses on top of one another
And are ready to die now, after all these years of smother.
But after three thousand of Earth years that have passed
You have shown that life can prosper and life can last!
As I see now, it is in outer space our future does lie,
And not inside that white shell we are in to die.
So... Thank you, Man of Earth, for your visit to my home.
We must go on and smash that horrid dome!"
III.
So it was there and them a bond was bound,
Between the Alien and Man, on the Moon it was found.
They solemnly shook their hands and friendship was made
And both began a new future that changed both their fates.
Together now they roam the spaces of many a galaxy,
To find new worlds, new life and both to live an eternity.
Each species, bound by omens so different at start
And both species freed by the other one's smart.
As they flew off with no rockets of war on their back
And the sign of unity painted on every other one's deck.
They turned to each other and smiled each their own way,
As the left the system and started yet another day.
- MaKe Arts, 1998 -