Deborah DeNicola: Millennium Jubilee  

We were called to attend the fake alien invasion. The subpoena arrived in a blue vellum envelope with a stamp of clouds and empty sky and a watermark hologram of a dove. They gave the date and time but Jim noticed the venue was missing. He said it was because we might be portal jumping and did not know the cyber space where we ‘d end up. I wanted to go as a cosmic diamond so as to flood the ballroom with my light. Amy asked if the occasion was a pre-requisite to the Fake Jesus Resurrection we’d prayed against—but we all agreed that would only come later on, like after we slid our bodies into our alien outfits. I decided my auric field would be fuchsia with a tint of lavender or peach. Sandy was conjuring her acoustic vortex to slide right on down the chime of Tibetan bells into the stardust skin-suit the tones produced. The day of— we costumed up early, went all theta-like under the dancing frequency of the singing bowls I’d psycho-neurally sensed and orbs of change in the air, trees vibrating and grass waving it’s sheafs like clapping hands. I expected to see Whitman and Neruda. Or at least Rimbaud in his drunken boat and Wacko Jacko moon-walking-on-water. If they could fake aliens, why not singers, dancers, poets? And wouldn’t that be the change we wanted to see in the world?  After all, I’d practiced handwriting in raindrops ever since I was young, poems like drones buzzing my dreamscape. We knew we could metabolize the higher vibes but wanted more than to live in a simulation. Nonetheless, to our surprise a mother ship arrived on time and Jim said something new was coming—while I felt in the stubs of my clipped wings something huge about to bubble up. 

Poem copyright 2025 Deborah DeNicola. First Published in One Page Poetry.

Image: ‘Cosmic Diamond,’ Caused By The Alignment Of A Star And A Planetary Nebula. (Source: International Business Times)

Deborah DeNicola’s most recent book, The Impossible 2021 is from Kelsay Press. She edited the anthology Orpheus & Company; Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology, Other books include Original Human, from Word Tech, Where Divinity Begins, Alice James Books, and several chapbooks. Deborah has received a National Endowment Fellowship in poetry.