She said she was from Venus. Here on Earth
they force-fed her cocaine and alcohol.
All she really wanted was a drink of water,
but they wouldn’t serve that to me, either.
She wanted to know if I could see the Southern Cross
from my country, mistakenly believed to be Spain.
I said, “No, the Crux is not in my night sky.”
She demanded to know if I believed in God.
I said, “No, but I really would like to.”
(I really would)
She asked me if I would talk to God for her.
I told her I was going to be on a plane in a few hours,
and I could holler her message out the window
as I went soaring past the moon. She said,
“Please ask him to send more gentle and
interesting people here from Spain.
It’s so awful here, I will be
going back to Venus soon.”
(Originally published in The William and Mary Review)