                      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)

