SETI Hits Pay Dirt

By David C. Kopaska-Merkel

(preliminary transcription)

Please to be thanking for you

this person who transmission [is] pleasing

transfer of goods/services

into your benevolent selves.

We have come, gods be spoken

between packing and material (?)

no artificial combustibles

essential data well repeated.

Stocked in sensitized protection

beside the open door of personal house,

transmitted century-years waiting

[of] your private benefit riches.

Instructions included in solitary

tug (push?) format easy engulfed

simply put in calculation device

activate and rejoice.

Teach secrets of sweat corn

its growth and nutrition

rejoice within you our

untrammeled selves.


David C. Kopaska-Merkel peers into the depths of time for the State of Alabama and describes his observations in both prose and poetry. Results can be found at projectpulp.com, Clarkesworldbooks.com, shocklines.com, and The Genre Mall. His poetry magazine, Dreams and Nightmares, is now in its 20th year. You can see more of David's work in our archives and at his website or email him at dragontea@EarthLink.net.