Awaiting the Alien

From some moments, you can’t help hoping
For it, God, the adventure of it,
To be confronted by something new,

So new you have no comprehension
What kind of phenomenon this is
You find yourself experiencing,

So new the most frantic rummaging
In memory comes up with nothing
Or sadly inappropriate names,

The way invasive Europeans
Fumbled with American fauna
Amidst the unexpected weather,

The way the primary indigenes,
Whoever were the first to stumble
On each human-free ecosystem,

Had to confront what somehow didn’t
Quite kill all of them, the way you would
Feel face to unknown and alien.