We watched the alien aircraft

Watched them hovering above our world

Watched to see if we were welcoming

New friends who would walk

With us discovering our way

Together or

Would we welcome invading monsters

Coming to take, not give

 

They landed on the Shifting Sea

Where we sailed in my childhood

Digging beneath to gather the last

Coula that burrowed there and the last

Priri that bloomed

 

Did they know we’d killed our world

and were waiting for it to die?

Were they deities come to punish us

For our careless care what was given?

Or were they our

Salvation, shatra of legends

Who would show us how to make our world

Live again?

 

Jala held a handful of color

To shower them in gratitude

Berth hid the weapon inside

Close at hand, until we could

Know what awaited us

 

We watched