Everything you’ve done in your tiny life
has already happened, seen in completion
like a quick-binged show
by aliens on a faraway star
Forty-nine gates and you’ve walked through them all
Each year you make yourself a little better
until it gets too hard, you slip up, end up
a little bit worse
All this time you’re accumulating stories,
commandments, debts. Your history is written
like a series of love affairs calculated by
Uber trips and the calories expended on a fitbit
There are some things untraceable through a telescope
things our alien observers can’t tell,
nestled in the slightest touch or most momentary glance
gestures so powerful even we don’t know
what they mean
Subtlety is a skill we don’t all share
You lose your hearing first, everything else comes after
till you’re just a hunk of reactive dust
flying through the universe on G-d’s breath
Any moment we could be taken by a passing meteor
Every moment we’re not is a gift from Above
Aliens aren’t telepathic but they’re ready to learn
Not testing us but watching us
so let’s give them a show