Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders - читать онлайн бесплатно полную версию книги . Страница 30

THE DAY THE SAUCERS CAME

That day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,And the people of Earth stood and stared as they descended,Waiting, dry-mouthed, to find what waited inside for usAnd none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrowBut you didn’t notice it becauseThat day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,Was the day that the graves gave up their deadAnd the zombies pushed up through soft earthor erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,Came towards us, the living, and we screamed and ran,But you did not notice this becauseOn the saucer day, which was the zombie day, it wasRagnarok also, and the television screens showed usA ship built of dead-men’s nails, a serpent, a wolf,All bigger than the mind could hold, and the cameraman couldNot get far enough away, and then the Gods came outBut you did not see them coming becauseOn the saucer-zombie-battling-gods day the floodgates brokeAnd each of us was engulfed by genies and spritesOffering us wishes and wonders and eternitiesAnd charm and cleverness and true brave hearts and pots of goldWhile giants feefofummed across the land, and killer bees,But you had no idea of any of this becauseThat day, the saucer day the zombie dayThe Ragnarok and fairies day, the day the great winds cameAnd snows, and the cities turned to crystal, the dayAll plants died, plastics dissolved, the day theComputers turned, the screens telling us we would obey, the dayAngels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,And all the bells of London were sounded, the dayAnimals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,The fluttering capes and arrival of the Time Machine day,You didn’t notice any of this becauseyou were sitting in your room, not doing anythingnot even reading, not really, justlooking at your telephone,wondering if I was going to call.