A Program for Survival

When what we thought was a distant star has fallen

And hums in the last of the fields beyond the last

Of the cities, we must approach it from a new

Direction. Descending from the rooftops, leaving

The helicopters idling in their harnesses,

Peeling off the gas masks and instruments of torture,

Let us walk into the country through the morning

Darkness. Somewhere on the way let each of us

Pause and hang his clothes on the branch of a fallen

Tree. When we come together into the clearing,

Let us form a ring of glowing human bodies

Around the monstrous flying thing from another

Planet that throbs and bristles with a thousand arms.

By the light that strikes us from its fascinated

Windows, we will see our enemies and neighbors

Fleeced with a dozen shades of body hair, their pale

Genitals unfolding delicate as tendrils

Or tucking under them like smiles. Let us lie down

With our lovers when we know them, falling on them

Softly as possible, rocking with them, getting

Up and turning to the future humming in the grass.

As the salt of loving glistens on our bodies,

Let us admire ourselves in the mirroring surface

While the machine is gentled and admires us all.