Perhaps

Darby Riley

September 7, 2021

The alien space ships

which people keep seeing

moving in strange ways

at the speed of thought –

what are they after?

Flying between stars

is beyond our ken.

It takes us eight months

just to get to Mars.

Do they hope to wake us

before we kill our world,

our selves?  Are they

envoys of the universe

on a rescue mission?

It’s hard to think

that they too might

be so deluded

as to take next quarter’s

profits as a stand-in

for The Great Spirit.

For our cosmic cousins

maybe greed is pointless,

power is for love,

and being – its endless beauty – 

is always to be celebrated.

Darby Riley, a native San Antonian, has been married to Chris Riley since 1971 and they have three grown children and a granddaughter, age 6. He has hosted a monthly poetry writing workshop for over 25 years. He practices law with his son Charles and is active in the local Sierra Club.