Mainly About Aliens

I’m looking up into the sky

And I am thinking, how can it be this big?

Why is there so much of it?

How do we all fit?

I am thinking all these things

But I am mainly thinking about aliens.

Wondering whether there is someone or something

Doing the same.

Looking up,

Hoping or knowing there is life out there.

I wonder if we’d welcome the aliens,

Respect their alien ways,

Watch when they show us new colours,

Listen when they talk about their part of the sky.

I wonder if they’ll say, “We come in peace,”

If they’ll even have a word for peace on their planet.

Maybe they don’t have guns

Or war,

Or maybe they are running away from it.

I’m looking up into the sky

And I’m thinking, why is it so big?

How can there be so much of it?

If we can all fit?

Thinking about how we treat each other,

Thinking about how we’d treat aliens,

Thinking mainly about aliens.

© Ruth Awolola from Rising Stars New Young Voices in Poetry (Otter-Barry Books)