Monday, December 3, 2012

Maple Leaf Messiah



image borrowed from bing


Maple Leaf Messiah

“Your heartbeat sounds like Sasquatch feet,
thundering, shaking the concrete.”
--Biggie Small

Did you never consider that we visit you
in your waking dreams?
Do you think it was an accident
that we fueled the imagination
of George Lucas, and that then
he patterned the Wookies after us,
allowing Chewbacca to pilot the
Millennium Falcon with ease?

I am a Watcher.
We are omnipresent
and have been your companions
from the first wiggling larva state.
We are a cosmic mosaic of inter-dimensional surfers
and active intergalactic time liberators.

To us all men are mixed bloods,
their true ancestry mandated by edict
to remain a dark mystery within a mystery.

We were the first of the Watchers.
We co-exist in a joint effort with all your
other visitors, sharing in the commitment
to your eventual advancement,
and some of the responsibility
for many of your foibles. 

We live a thousand years.
My sire stood in the crowd at Calvary.
We step from yesterday to tomorrow
with ease, passing through your todays 
but rarely. 

We know our visage can be frightening.
We certainly do not look anything like
the skinhead store mannequins seen
as Watchers on FRINGE.
You have carved our likeness
on your totem poles.

We are hirsute, ten feet tall, & weigh half a ton,
are the perfect combination of primordial splendor
and technological proficiency;
like the messiahs of legend
we take corporal form when we wish,
but vanish through portals when necessary;
knowing that our sightings can cause crisis,
disputes, & controversy.

Our vehicles have always been beyond stealth,
mostly invisible, insuring that our aerial surveillance
of your various events remains undetected.

We have walked among you from the beginning,
crossing Beringia with some of you
when it was a wide grassland steppe,
watching the early horses & camels migrate east
while lions & men migrated west.
So the Yukon was the cradle of immigration
for the Americas, and a popular posting for us.

There in the geological posterior of the old 
Hudsons Bay NW territories, among the tallest
peaks in Canada, in the bosom of the 
Ring of Fire, we have bases for our vehicles
and communication centers. 
Mine is in Mt. Logan, not far from 
the wonderful wetlands
at Old Crow Flats.

We set up complexes near the Boreal forests
across the globe, reminding us of the vast expanses
of forest on our home planet. We have hundreds 
of names in your various cultures.
Some of the First Nation on Vancouver Island
called us Sesquac--the wild men.

We are here by choice, without conscription,
each of us deployed for a century,
and have enjoyed our meager impact
on your progress. Your achievements during
the first half of my tour have been astonishing;
all of you busy as beavers assimilating
every scrap of gifted innovation. 

We understand all your languages, 
but prefer our own expansive communication,
covering all the octaves of your hearing spectrum
but sounding to you like growling, whistling,
and howling. 

Our message is joyful.
The Mayans, though well meaning,
were confused. Your existence as a species
is still in its infancy, your history still in prologue.
You could not possibly even imagine
the glittering future that awaits you.

Be sure to smile when you discover
what will be shared with you
the summer of 2020.


Glenn Buttkus

December 2012

Posted over on dVerse Poets OLN

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10 comments:

Shawna said...

Man, I love this:

"I am a Watcher.
We are omnipresent
and have been your companions
from the first wiggling larva state."

And these:

"sharing in the commitment
to your eventual advancement,
and some of the responsibility
for many of your foibles.
We live a thousand years."

"You have carved our likeness
on your totem poles.
We are hirsute"

"but vanish through portals when necessary; knowing that our sightings can cause crisis"

"We have walked among you from the beginning, crossing Beringia with some of you when it was a wide grassland steppe, watching the early horses & camels migrate east
while lions & men migrated west."

"We set up complexes near the Boreal forests across the globe, reminding us of the vast expanses
of forest on our home planet. We have hundreds"

"We are here by choice, without conscription, each of us deployed for a century"

"covering all the octaves of your hearing spectrum but sounding to you like growling, whistling,
and howling"

"The Mayans, though well meaning,
were confused"

This is freaking awesome, Glenn. I love it. Big smiles over here. :)

Anonymous said...

Excellent

Profound but also Black Comedy

Brian Miller said...

this is rich brother...so much great lines in it...i am a watcher...me too....love the star wars references...ha, really love...

We are a cosmic mosaic of inter-dimensional surfers
and active intergalactic time liberators.

looking forward to that glittering future...2020...you mean i gotta wait another 8 years? smiles...

Tashtoo said...

Okay...I'm not leaving until the summer of 2020...I'm sitting right here, held ensnared by your amazing pen. Seriously Glenn...I want you in print, to curl up with, and lose myself...this is freaking fantastic! and MY maple leaf heart was sold at the title.

Claudia said...

smiles...think all poets are watchers in a way...love this glenn...great images...cool on the star wars references as well

Pat Hatt said...

Oh the star wars references were grand here in your land. Can surely tell you are a watcher, wonderful write.

Anonymous said...

Whoa! That's alot, okay, probably more there than I realize. But, I get the sasquatch thing. "You're history still in prologue" is goodness exponentially said. And the line, the complete line "You could not possibly even imagine the glittering future that awaits you." This is a sentence of HOPE! Nice write and btw I saw Star Wars and it was epic, exponentially. ;) gardenlilie.com

Unknown said...

Ah Glenn, something else completely unexpected. I like how your poems are always surprising.

Beachanny said...

Shades of "The Silence" in Dr. Who. Oooo I love the myth and duration of this. What a tale you've spun, what texture, meaning, and playfulness with being and time! Wow!!

Judy Mauer said...

cool!!