Monument to Shame In the third year of the first contacts (It took that long to begin to learn each others' languages and cultures) The first Earth delegation was invited To visit the Alien's worlds. They toured a dozen or so planets, All very difficult to describe Except that no two were alike And all were beautiful Even if so strange As to not be fully appreciated or comprehended. Than at last the Aliens said, "The next planet you will see is our monument to shame, The skeleton in our closet That we are showing you because of the knowledge we gained from it." They then landed on a barren world Poxed with sterile, dirty cities Crowded with lonely people: Cities fed by atomic-powered food factories And domed against the planet's almost-breathable air. "What is the lesson you learned here?" we asked, "Is it a misconceived colony Whose terraforming attempt has failed?" "We regret to state that that is not the case, That the lesson was more painful than that. This ruined world that you see about you Is our native planet." -- Tom Digby Original 02:10 05/21/1970 Entered 16:51 11/13/2002 (title added)