Fairytale: A True Story
By Cheyenne Nimes
1/8/08. The King’s birthday. Dozens in a Texas town report seeing the UFO. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts." Pilots estimated the unidentified lights moved at least 3,000 miles per hour, a mile long by a half mile wide. Stretched in the direction of something else entirely. You know there are reports from all over the world. You know there are unexplained radio signals during routine surveillance of space. Faint, pure tones of no natural origin bouncing into the earth's first layer. In dreams, we begin to get bleed-through from the image. They circle around continually making a drawing of themselves. Official words are part of the same circle. Black helicopters that make no sound. Lucifer is sometimes known as the light bearer. We hear their accounting of crafts in the atmosphere; they tell us lies, lines in simple text about what is or might be in the sky. They round this off. The question asked more a statement: Weather service says it's a balloon, Nasa says satellite. Meteor, says National Aeronautics Administration. Same thing since time immemorial: Meteor. Words repeat themselves as if they forgot their earlier appearance. Military Representatives: Leftover Leonids, weather anomalies. "Orbiter generated debris illuminated by the sun." "Electrical flashes emitted spontaneously by the atmosphere." And the standby: “The sun's angle can play tricks on you." At Arecibo, huge SETI dishes sit. Wait languid atop mountains like old silver mining town prizes someone lost the claim ticket to. Metallic shiver then our curious stoppage. As there is no limit to darkness, so too there is no limit to light. Elvis said, This is the story of our lives called fairytale. He saw one. I saw something that is not from this world. It’s coming down. Headed toward Stephenville at 3,000 miles per hour. Ollie ollie all in free. Because nothing in the arsenal flies at a velocity like that.
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bio: 2009 winner of DIAGRAM’s hybrid essay contest, I just graduated from the nonfiction writing program at Iowa. I was a 2009 writer in residence at the Iowa Art Museum. An e-chap Coming Apocalypse Attractions has just come out on Gold Wake
By Cheyenne Nimes
1/8/08. The King’s birthday. Dozens in a Texas town report seeing the UFO. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts." Pilots estimated the unidentified lights moved at least 3,000 miles per hour, a mile long by a half mile wide. Stretched in the direction of something else entirely. You know there are reports from all over the world. You know there are unexplained radio signals during routine surveillance of space. Faint, pure tones of no natural origin bouncing into the earth's first layer. In dreams, we begin to get bleed-through from the image. They circle around continually making a drawing of themselves. Official words are part of the same circle. Black helicopters that make no sound. Lucifer is sometimes known as the light bearer. We hear their accounting of crafts in the atmosphere; they tell us lies, lines in simple text about what is or might be in the sky. They round this off. The question asked more a statement: Weather service says it's a balloon, Nasa says satellite. Meteor, says National Aeronautics Administration. Same thing since time immemorial: Meteor. Words repeat themselves as if they forgot their earlier appearance. Military Representatives: Leftover Leonids, weather anomalies. "Orbiter generated debris illuminated by the sun." "Electrical flashes emitted spontaneously by the atmosphere." And the standby: “The sun's angle can play tricks on you." At Arecibo, huge SETI dishes sit. Wait languid atop mountains like old silver mining town prizes someone lost the claim ticket to. Metallic shiver then our curious stoppage. As there is no limit to darkness, so too there is no limit to light. Elvis said, This is the story of our lives called fairytale. He saw one. I saw something that is not from this world. It’s coming down. Headed toward Stephenville at 3,000 miles per hour. Ollie ollie all in free. Because nothing in the arsenal flies at a velocity like that.
- - -
bio: 2009 winner of DIAGRAM’s hybrid essay contest, I just graduated from the nonfiction writing program at Iowa. I was a 2009 writer in residence at the Iowa Art Museum. An e-chap Coming Apocalypse Attractions has just come out on Gold Wake
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