Last-Minute Message for a Time Capsule.

Last-Minute Message
for a Time Capsule.

   I have to tell you this, whoever you are:
   that on one summer morning here, the ocean
   pounded in on tumbledown breakers,
   a south wind, bustling along the shore,
   whipped the froth into little rainbows,
   and a reckless gull swept down the beach
   as if to fly were everything it needed.
   I thought of your hovering saucers,
   looking for clues, and I wanted to write this down,
   so it wouldn't be lost forever-that
   once upon a time we had
   meadows here, and astonishing things,
   swans and frogs and luna moths
   and blue skies that could stagger your heart.
   We could have had them still,
   and welcomed you to earth, but
   we also had the righteous ones
   who worshipped the True Faith, and Holy War.
   When you go home to your shining galaxy,
   say that what you learned
   from this dead and barren place is
   to beware the righteous ones.

Reprinted with the author's permission from New and Selected Poems, 1956-1996, University of Arkansas Press, 1996.