RECKONING

RECKONING

they thought
it was
a stone

they thought
it was a ball
of ice
and dust

and now the word
whispered under breath
is Van
Neumann probe

skulking
behind the Sun
artificial
      minded
self
   replicating
millions of years old
millions
of years
ahead of us

perhaps on
collision course about
to join us
   in our orbit

following
   dead reckoning

here
for a reckoning

wish we
had come up with
that dark forest theory

decades
ago