PLANET MAGAZINE

Illustration: “Genghis in Space” © 2007 by Romeo Esparrago

time dilation

we sail headlong
towards distant stars
blinking at us–

like sirens
their cosmic call
everywhere at once
apparently

but the light left
so long ago
we would be late
even if we could
eventually arrive there
in vestigial time

exhausted by the trip
& generations
later much too late
to explain to those
we met

how it is they
like us
must endure the ironies
of E=mc2

but the trick is
to trust the appearing
or the disappearing

or maybe just the slow dilation,
knowing better than to trust your eyes.

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Recently, the Planet Magazine offices received the following message from “The UFO Pilots Ass’n of Testbed Earth”. Interestingly, it came in via traditional fax. We were able to verify the information as correct, however, via the 1-866 contact number on the press release. When we called to ask, “A fax, WTF?! LOL!!”, the alien representative we spoke with told us that fax technology is a pure form of Lo-Tek and therefore fashionable among many in the Galactic Hierarchy.

Anyway, here is the communication in full, given the importance of the subject:

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