Invasion

Strip-searched and naked in Kurgenblatt’s fortress, Suspended, like suckling pigs over a fire, We suffered the tortures of prodding and poking, Our bodies exhausted, our nerves on a wire As rubbery gropers made free with their probing And hiccupping voices commanded machines, We writhed and we twisted, we howled and resisted Yet all of their science invaded our genes Then down to a cell under Kurgenblatt’s valley To dwell on our misfortune, soak up the tears And ponder our choices in undertone voices Whilst never divulging the worst of our fears By now, we’d adjusted to Kurgenblatt’s climate, Our crash-landing history some ten hours old. It wasn’t in sickness that our sore flesh shivered Though under the skin we were feeling the cold A translator came to that Kurgenblatt prison To ask us some questions of Mentai import. We answered our names and our ranks, nothing further Like good little soldiers, of lessons well taught The egg-eyes rolled sideways, a Mentai despairing Of ever his reaching our alien souls And suddenly I felt the stirring of empathy Would I be different if we exchanged roles? We two had intruded in Kurgenblatt’s valley And were we not monsters or freaks, to their eyes? Would our world’s reception in any way differ If Mentai from Kurgenblatt fell from our skies?