we await the visitors
with no expectations now

our minds benumbed
our hopes savaged

if they want this planet
we are ready to sell

perhaps they can save tigers
tidy up a bit

in 2001 our star child
turned simian warrior

now we answer signals
from lifeless gadgets

let the computer
terminate all doubt

a black monolith
tracks product evolution

finite absolutes made
from an infinity of waste

we hope the visitors
know the science of chaos

can find the darkness visible
go with the flow

otherwise there is no option
we will have to kill them

Peter Buknatski
Montpelier, Vt.