Michael Ceraolo- Two Poems

Holiday Interlude

But first,

             the Seven settled in

to watch and experience one of the American Terrans'

famous holiday revelries,

                                     one

they had previously experienced only virtually

Misty fog mingled with lingering smoke

from fireworks shot off the night of their arrival

People beat the sunrise to save places on the beach

for picnicking,

                     for swimming,

                                          for volleyball,

for tossing plastic discs and other objects

mostly spheroid,

                          and,

                                 what the Seven

had determined was the most popular activity

to be engaged in,

                          for

the ritual murder of brain cells

Bi-planes flew by toting advertising signs

Deer,

         raccoon,

                         groundhogs,

                                            squirrels,

                                                           and

even a lone coyote were

the latest roadside casualties of the car,

                                                           reflecting

the uneasy co-existence between the humans

and many of their fellow creatures

                                                     Because

a crowd had assembled

a souvenir shop had sprung up

(definition of souvenir

-a doodad you don't really need

to serve as a reminder

of an outing or a trip

you wouldn't otherwise remember)

                                                    Gradually

over the course of the day,

                                        the Seven's

other senses were engaged:

the smell of charcoal for cookouts,

the smells of the foods being cooked,

the smells of the seasonings sprinkled on the foods,

the tastes of the foods when they were eaten,

the sounds of the different musics

both recorded and live,

                                  and

the feel of the lake's water on their skin

At night neon lights lit up the sky,

                                                  and

people gathered to watch more fireworks,

most,

         though not all,

                               of today's displays

authorized by the local civilian authorities

                                                              And

everyone applauded the shows and themselves

Happily exhausted,

                             the Seven rested up,

                                                            for

tomorrow the real work of the mission

would begin

The Blob from Area 1

It was a man-made creature,

                                          made from

material dredged from the Cuyahoga River

to facilitate the river's shipping traffic,

                                                      then

dumped untreated and uncontained into the lake

during a time when such dumping was routine

Age:  at least forty-five to fifty years old

Size:  two square miles

Weight:  unknown

Composition:  known only in part,

                                                 but

containing dangerous concentrations

of at least two pollutants

from the toxic alphabet soup:

                                             PCBs

(polychlorinated biphenyls),

                                        and PAHs

(polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons)

                                                     And

these and the other materials were heavier than water

because the creature was crawling on the lake bottom

Earth bureaucrats had designated

the affected area as Area 1

(no explanation of how they came to name it

as such,

              or whether

there are other affected areas),

                                              and

one of the crats had written to another,

in a letter recently revealed,

"Sampling date in and around Area 1

clearly shows the ability

of the sediments to migrate"

                                           (carefully

avoiding calling it a creature)

"and further shows the sediment

migrating in the direction of the water intake"

noting that

                  the migrations was

"toward the raw water intake

for our Nottingham Treatment Plant"

                                                     also noting

"Area 1 is within approximately five miles"

of said intake,

                       though

given the mania for secrecy

prevalent at that time and later,

they did not disclose the intake's 

exact location

                        Though

they couldn't yet tell how fast the creature

was migrating toward the water intake,

                                                         now

that its existence was public knowledge

on this planet,

                     they assured the public

they were carefully monitoring the situation,

                                                                and

that they had a plan of action

should conditions warrant it