AND AGAIN

AND AGAIN

we discovered
a planet of poets
annihilated with
our death ray

could be a useful
profitable resource

so had
their bodies skinned

last night I had a pretty
intense, harrowing dream
inspired by reading
one of their poems
about someone
who ill-
advisedly brings
back to his house
a captured alien, one
of their queens

and dare not leave her
unattended for fear
of what
we might fast-
evolve or transform into

and so my
guilt-ridden nightmare
of horrific self-
transmutation

am never
going to read
any of those poets’
poetry again dreaming such horror again and again