I stand behind a stained glass window
And cast a moving silhouette
But somewhere behind me
I know there is another window

If you leave words

                      here and there
                                    
                                               only the

                                                                 one

                                                                          who

                                                              follows

                                                      you
                              
                         ­             for miles

                           sees

                                   into
        
                                          your
  
              ­                                    soul
        
                                                          and when they do

                                                             ­     you'll know they have been

                                                       following

                                                 you

The flower says Sun shine on me
Says drink my nectar to the bee
The bee says Queen I will be true
You are my sisters
I love you

She dances to illuminate
To help her sisters find the way
They follow her to find the feast
The Sun says I am in the East

The Sun says here you find the nectar
Shines on the tiny collectors
Bright enough for us to find
A rainbow filled with fine dark lines

The Sun says I am hydrogen
And helium and other things
The Sun says Earth stay close by me
As we fly through our galaxy

The Sun says I am in the West
She burns inside her fiery nest
The darkness comes down from afar
So deep, so dark, so full of stars

The stars say you are looking West
You're this far North, no more, no less
The stars say it is 10 PM
The stars say it is almost spring

The stars say we are hydrogen
And other things so deep within
So many things that every part
Of everyone is made of stars

The Moon says Earth I hold to you
In day and night forever true
Deep fire and ocean dance the tide
Whispers to woman deep inside

The woman feels the cosmic song
She dances in it all night long
The beauty of the endless sky
Blooms like a flower in her eyes

So deep below, so deep above
She reaches out and feels their love
So infinite and yet so small
She whispers back
I love you all

I am the alien seeking terrestrial understanding
astrobiologically, electromagnetically,
electroencephalographic quinquagintatrecentilliardths
I do not fully itemize, agglomerate homogeneously:
anthropomorphisms, overspeculativeness,
antiestablishmentarians, hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
I am you

Finally
There are no more
Words inside of me

Empty

and silent

I cannot speak

If I believed in God
I would write him a poem
Ask him where he came from
To help me to know him

If I believed in God
I would write her a song
I'd walk in the garden
And sing it at dawn

If I believed in God
It would be an obsession
I would pray every day
I have so many questions

To whom do I address my awe,
My thanks, my love?

Where are you, God?

he drats and tolchocks till he viddies the
malenky merzky grazhny grazzy nazz
and shives from guttiwuts to gulliver
the poogly plenny all razrez razrez

tree cheenas itty up to govoreet
with dva vecks when the bolshy britva's done
one slooshies slovos without shilarny
the other skorry sobirats each one

prestoopniks plot, chelloveck and ptitsa
crast dva nozhes, tolchock the collocol
the ptitsa privodeets pyahnitsas
with krovvy on her rookers after all

glazzy for glazzy, zooby for zooby
to oobivat prestoopniks nadmenny
the rozz becomes so deep steeped in krovvy
he goes o'er a prestoopnik, a plenny

the zheena's sneeting cheesting nachinats
jeezny and krovvy are so dorogoy
a veck can kopet but cannot kupet
to crast brings britva, bitva, doubtful joy

The Internet gives us what we ask for
And in return we show it constantly
Not only who but what and where we are
What we wish we could have and do and be

We wanted to know all there was to know
To see everything that there was to see
And hidden in the algorithm's soul
We found our own soul's eerie mockery


"You like this so you might like this and that."
It all starts out so gently, harmlessly
"Here are some other people who like that.
I'll show you where they live so you can meet."

The camel's got his nose inside the tent
And little increments increase unseen
"Let me write you a political ad
that's tailored to your sensitivities."


It waits in dutiful subservience
It watches for the things we wish to see
We laugh and marvel at its diligence
Its idiot idiosyncrasies

But as it gathers our intelligence
The question is important: who are we?
Its master can be anyone who wants
And we don't have the will to set it free.

One by one and two by two
They stand in silence
Patiently
This never used to be the beach
Green rustling islands
Tops of trees

One by one they watch the waves
A little closer
Every day
And every one is whispering
A deepening soliloquy

One by one and two by two
The line stretches across the beach
Past sunken twilit skyscrapers
Still glittering
Just out of reach

One by one they made the choice
With heavy hearts and clever minds
To take a chance
Upon a ship
And leave their drowning world behind

One by one and two by two
The tears flow down upon the world
They join the sea
Where they turn cold
Where they have made the water warm

One by one and step by step
The long line curls into the ship
They have been waiting
For some time
Now it is time to take a trip

One by one and two by two
The animals are led on board
They listened to
The warning signs
Survival will be their reward

One by one the lights come on
The dark machines begin to glow
A rushing sound
Drowns out the waves
Into the dark
It's time to go

One by one and two by two
They gaze in wonder through the night
At Sun and Moon and Stars and Earth
An endless sea of blue and white

One by one the ships fly on
But they have only taken half
The others watch in disbelief
And kneel before their golden calf

Distorted like a rotoscope
So clearly undefined
Look back through the kaleidoscope
And read between the lines

When raging gales tear at your sails
What captain keeps control?
You swore you'd never lift the veil
But I have seen your soul

I've watched your rainbow dreams unfurl
A million collisions
An alien who learned the world
By watching television

And though I know you're oh so lonely
When they find our land
You might turn out to be
The only one they understand