Ridley Scott’s
Alien
with Moth
ride arrowhead
slide across massive faces
and hideous limbs
preen on white upholstered
bulkheads
disappear into
measureless space
during widescreen
establishing shots
noiseless grey invader
observe this late 1970s future
in which astronaut miners
foul rare air
with absurd cigarettes
(we patiently await
NASA’s smoking phase)
give in to unassailable attraction
hold fast to strobing brightness
and ride roughshod
over bright smothering nightmare
until slow credits
trigger houselight-rise
Benjamin Dodds is the author of Regulator (Puncher & Wattmann Poetry, 2014). His work has appeared in Best Australian Poems 2014, Antipodes: Poetic Responses, Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry, and on Radio National’s Poetica program.