invasive species
Poem - by Bethany F. Brengan
i want a movie
where the aliens skip new york
london san francisco land
instead in the heart
of the amazon brave little explorer
scientists with photographic fingertips
who breathe in the secret signals
of trees and immediately understand
their stories who cannot be harmed
running their sensitive
hands over iridescent beetles
poisonous dart frogs piranhas
amused at attempts to bite or sting
their only threats are separation
and the dark
they climb above the canopy
sucking in great gasps of sunlight
the main conflict will be whether
by staying they contaminate the system
they've come to love one
wants to leave and one doesn't
i don't care how the movie
resolves so long as it is
beautiful and at the end
we the audience
realize that we haven't seen a single
human but we didn't notice
because we had been busy relearning
the shadowy bits of our back garden
how a spray of pollen across
an anaconda's abdomen
makes a strange and awefull galaxy
