posted on March 21, 2003 08:20:56 AM new
Last-Minute Message for a Time Capsule
>
> --Philip Appleman
>
> I have to tell you this, whoever you are:
> that on one summer morning here, the ocean
> pounded in on tumbledown breakers,
> a south wind, bustling along the shore,
> whipped the froth into little rainbows,
> and a reckless gull swept down the beach
> as if to fly were everything it needed.
> I thought of your hovering saucers,
> looking for clues, and I wanted to write this down,
> so it wouldn’t be lost forever –
> that once upon a time we had
> meadows here, and astonishing things,
> swans and frogs and luna moths
> and blue skies that could stagger your heart.
> We could have had them still,
> and welcomed you to earth, but
> we also had the righteous ones
> who worshiped the True Faith, and Holy War.
> When you go home to your shining galaxy,
> say that what you learned
> from this dead and barren place is
> to beware the righteous ones.
>
> from New and Selected Poems, 1956-1996,
> University of Arkansas Press,
