through noiseless veil of afterburn
Listen for a moment of movement
high above thralled heads within the retreating
vessel’s void
Porcelain coin
of bleached snail shell
rolls unseen across a field of bone
once and permanent passenger
grown too large
to disembark
Benjamin Dodds
Ridley Scott’s Alien with Moth
ride arrowhead
slide across massive faces
and hideous limbs
preen on white upholstered
bulkheads
disappear into
measureless space
during widescreen
establishing shots
noiseless grey invader
observe this late 1970s future
in which astronaut miners
foul rare air
with absurd cigarettes
(we patiently await
NASA’s smoking phase)
give in to unassailable attraction
hold fast to strobing brightness
and ride roughshod
over bright smothering nightmare
until slow credits
trigger houselight-rise
Benjamin Dodds
(previously appeared at VerityLa.com in September 2015.)
