On hearing that UFOs may be real

The UFOs check in, check out
upon our senseless, bloody rout —
the wars and strip mines, fire and drought.

Do aliens view with disdain
the overspreading human stain?
Our history’s heedless, speeding train?

Perhaps they’re laughing, laying odds
on our demise, we tin-pot gods
who live and die upon our frauds.

Why would they want to disembark?
They’ll wait until the final spark,
the whole world empty, clean and stark.

*****

Lisa Barnett writes: “This bleak little poem was inspired by an article suggesting that the scientific community now believes UFOs may be…real. I got to thinking about how disappointed aliens would be by the state of our world and the destructiveness of the human species.
Originally written in rhymed couplets, the poem grew to four-line monorhyme stanzas, before being edited down to the present tercets.” 

‘Alien Flyover’ was originally published in Pulsebeat Poetry Journal.

Lisa Barnett’s poems have appeared in The Hudson Review, Measure, New Verse Review, Snakeskin, and elsewhere. She is the author of two chapbooks: The Peacock Room (Somers Rocks Press) and Love Recidivus (Finishing Line Press). She lives in Haverford, Pennsylvania with her husband.  

“Ufo” by Amanclos is licensed under CC BY 2.0.