DANCING

DANCING

we are dancing
straight into your sights

stepping out
tramping on each
other’s toes
flirting with your cross-hairs

we look to be
an interesting species
(you probably thought
and thus
reported
back to your Homeworld)

looked for the sympathy
to help us
compassion to
guide us

did
not find it

and was it not us,
after all, who came up
with that preposterous
yet strategically brilliant
“dark forest
theory”?

and here an advanced civilization
eager enough to listen
humble enough
to learn

and so
     took our dance
and turned it
tango
   apocalyptico
dastardly dirty

ensured that, though we
were new
kids on the block
age in
    millions not
in billions

could ensure, to use a phrase,
of ours that
also caught on

we could be gone
they could have us disappeared
no more
potential threat

everything we are, were, could
ever be

gone

in thirty seconds