The Thing

One second the security cameras
showed the Martian

resting peacefully
against the wall

of the entry way,
next second she was gone,

“poof” like an
Oliver de la Paz poem.

The Martian was
nowhere, man.

Suddenly, she was standing,
standing arms akimbo right there,

facing the Security Council
members,

stood there motionless,
fear and terror

gripping the council members,
(contrary to popular belief,

fear and terror
are not the same thing.

Fear, apparently,
has one more electron

than terror,
though most of us

would have bet
our Arizona beachfront properties

that it was terror
which had the extra electron).

Actually, the council members
were frozen stiff, dead stiff,

since the Martian’s
intrusion into the chambers

had allowed the
three hundred below zero temps

on Mars
to enter unimpeded.

The emergency system
had closed all air-tight doors,

but there were
no doors

where the Martian
had broken thru.