An alien moved into my neighborhood.
She stood gray in the shade,
Turning eggplant as she wandered
More in the sun.
I asked her, “Why did you choose
East Bay?” She said, “Well,
It was here or Area 51—
I'm playing— here or Montana;
A mountain cabin or
An apartment by the sea.”
Sometimes I watched her
Walking through the park,
Running temple-tendrils through
The late-day sun, stroking grass
And brushing bark. “So why not
Those green mountains?”
“It was really hard to choose,”
She said, her eyes going inky,
“Like committing to one lover;
Always another one you lose.
But so rare is the ocean. So
There's where I wanted to be.
Mountains are everywhere:
Mars, Vesta, Oberon.
But so few have a sea.”
I handed her a cup, for her
Eyes. “Why are you inking?”
“Oh, it's nothing,” she
Laughed off with a warbling
Squeee, “You know—
Just thinking.”
But after some time, as the
Sky's light drained, and its
Refracted blues emptied
Clear again, she guided
Me by gentle pincers
Toward the balcony—
And pointed into
The starry deep.
“Right there,
He lived:
He was
Opal-skinned.
And he foamed,
Like the ocean
waves, for
me.”
The speaker in this poem is surprised when the alien chooses living by the ocean instead of living in the mountains because the speaker would often see her in the park, “stroking grass and brushing bark”, both characteristics of a mountain. However, the alien wants to live near the rare dazzling ocean instead of in an environment she knows she will be comfortable with, the mountains. Aliens are a mystery to humans, and they represent exploring the unknown (outer space) and solving the mystery of life. This alien chooses to explore her unknown and marvels at its beauty, and sees the moon, “Opal-skinned. / And he foamed, / Like the ocean / waves, for / me”. The shape of “Mountains or ocean?...” is shaped like its title, with two peaks that could represent either a mountain range or waves. There is an outline of a moon within the first peak. To me, the moon seems mysterious and ethereal because of its glowing beauty, and the alien, seeing the same moon, feels the same, despite being from another world.
ReplyDeleteThe moon is not a character in this poem.
DeleteI think, perhaps, aliens would not feel so alien to us once we started looking for our similarities...below the surface (like in the heart-strings, maybe).
This poem seems to be about connection between two lives, a connection that in this case ignores the distance of two worlds. Despite the surreal physical descriptions of the alien, she comes across as a living, relatable character. Her dialogue makes her sound less like an extraterrestrial and more like she just moved in from the Midwest. What especially humanizes her is a sense of longing in her words, a longing that continues through the whole poem. The alien’s desire to view the ocean is something landlocked humans everywhere experience. This same universal feeling comes across in the final image of the poem, in which she looks up with a similar sense of longing at where her lover lived in the stars. I think this feeling of longing, both for the new and for what is closest to our hearts, is one of the strongest emotions we can go through. It is a feeling we all experience, and when two people’s longings becomes a singular shared longing, an intimate bond forms. Such a connection is often brief and fleeting, but it is powerful and leaves a mark. As is seen in the case of the alien and the speaker, it can create a connection that spans the galaxy.
ReplyDeleteHey, man - I thought I was writing the poetry here ;-)
DeleteI thought it was interesting how the alien is portrayed as a real, living character that we can relate to. I remember in elementary school that whenever a new student became a part of our class, a teacher would ask if someone would volunteer to spend recess and lunch with the new student to introduce her to the school. I always hesitated to raise my hand because I was comfortable with the group of friends that I had had since kindergarten. When I noticed that the student was wearing a soccer jersey that I had, I volunteered immediately because that one common interest motivated me to want to get to know her better and build a connection with her. The new student was like the "alien" described in the poem. However, once the speaker recognizes her connection to her lover and relates to the dilemma she faced in making such a difficult decision, she is no longer an alien. She becomes a human and someone who has experienced the same feelings that we all have. It was a little difficult for me to understand whether she was pointing at the stars, the moon, or just the night sky in general at the end of the poem.
ReplyDeleteThe alien in this poem is surprisingly human and relatable to the reader rather than noticeably strange as one might believe. We have in our minds a preconceived notion of what an alien interaction would be like and this conversation between the speaker and the alien girl defies most assumptions. Our society has numerous stereotypes about aliens, but the girl in the poem has transcended all prior notions about what extraterrestrial life would be like in our minds. Aliens are frequently shown in a comedic manner or are portrayed as a threat to human life in the media. Her aspirations for life and her conversation with the speaker bring out a very human side to her. This poem made me consider how we view the world through a lense filtered by the media and that we should come to our own conclusions rather than rely solely on the word of others.
ReplyDeleteThis poem serves as a reminder to me as well that I need to remember what an immense privilege it is to live close to the ocean. Not everyone is as fortunate to live so close to the beach and be able to enjoy the beauty it radiates every day.
I greatly enjoyed how the alien in the poem was not perceived as a foreign, strange creature who shares few similarities with people on earth. Instead, the alien embodied human characteristics, longing for a sense of comfort as the ocean is a reminder of the feeling an old love had given her. Giving the alien human emotions makes it easier for the reader to understand that aliens don't have to be eerie, green creatures who speak in code and threaten to take over life on earth as we know it but instead are simply beings from other planets. It is interesting to think that the life that exists in the universe very well could be similar to life as it exists on earth, and whatever creatures that inhabit those planets could have human emotions and qualities. I also resonated with the emphasis on the magnetizing nature of the ocean. Being from Oregon, I grew up in the mountains but often visited my grandparents at the beach and being near the ocean always had a magical, surreal quality to it that I still feel to this day when I see the ocean.
ReplyDeleteWhen you say "human emotions," do you mean, emotions you can relate to? This alien is clearly not a human...I don't think we get to own feelings like love or loss. They're for dolphins, elephants, and a whole sky of other potential lives that are not human at all ~
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