[Martin Elster]

LOOK UP AT THE DARK

Guess who went in a flying saucer? Us:
**a pair of ungulates. Weird creatures
ran tests to see what sort of beast we were.
**They scanned our horns, then let us go.
Don’t ask us, please, what they desired to know.
**The thing was too much of a blur
to tell you what they looked like. But some features
**had quirks of a rhinoceros:

Their skin was thick as a walnut shell, their smell
**bloodhound-keen, but eyes bat-poor.
Their glasses were as thick as redwood bark.
**But they used a cup and saucer. Us?
We drink from water holes. We cannot tell
**you more. We hopped back in their door
to tour the stars. So look up at the dark
**whenever you see a rhinoceros!

M. J. E.