Aliens

By Jon Swan

This article appeared in the July 2, 2001 edition of The Nation.

June 14, 2001

» More

Illustration by Robert Grossman

To the aliens who descended
in a shower of light particles
that assembled at last into shapes
familiar from docudramas

tabloids at checkout stations
and other reliable sources
with the wide childlike eyes and face
narrowing on its way to the chin

clean shaven hairless as a scalded
chihuahua and given to wearing
highnecked tunic shirts to conceal
the absence of an Adam's apple

yes you there hovering
overhead with your brights on:
I refuse to accept your credentials!
Who do you think you are more alien than?

We have a man at the wheel down here
who's doing eighty-five in reverse
He's steering by the rearview mirror
and pays no attention to Stop signs

Yield? Why on earth should he when God
is his co-pilot and this is His country?
Nothing alien is alien to us.
You should get yourselves naturalized.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Blogs

» The Beat

Another Helping of FDR Please | Obama should follow the New Deal president's example and make his Thanksgiving Proclamation a call for economic justice.
John Nichols
15 Comments

» Editor's Cut

Filibuster Follies | "The filibuster has become a cancer growing inside the world's greatest deliberative body."
Katrina vanden Heuvel
74 Comments

» The Notion

Bad Black Mothers | For African American women, reproduction has never been an entirely private matter.
Melissa Harris-Lacewell
88 Comments

» Act Now!

Coal Country | Stunning film reveals new dimensions to the cost of America's over-reliance on coal.
Peter Rothberg
105 Comments

» The Dreyfuss Report

A Kingdom of Bicycles No Longer | China's ambassador for climate change speaks on the eve of the Copenhagen summit meeting.
Robert Dreyfuss
58 Comments