Shag Harbour's Visitors

Dragged out of bed in the dead of night

With their phones ringing pitilessly

Later at the station the droopy-eyed constables

Stared at their computer screens

Sleep-laden officers

Huddled over their coffees as they tried to decipher

The surreptitious low flying lights

Hovering off the coast of our shores

So faint yet blinding

A plane must have crashed

The survivors must be attempting to signal help

The coastguard was contacted

And the coordinates were delegated

They were appalled when they were informed

That nothing was in the water

A blank empty ocean was all that was found

And they were reprimanded and chastised

For you see Shag Harbour's visitors

Had already received their package

High above the earth trapped and drugged

A man was trapped to a cold table

Prodded and probed

With his vital organs laid out beside him

Tiny creatures were dissecting him

Awake but sedated he watched

As they tore through his sternum

While back down on earth everyone sat perplexed

Questioning their own interpretations of what they had witnessed

The tired policemen crawled back into their beds

Saddened and bewildered by what had been said

All the while inside the vessel

The man was still aware

As the vermin slowly reconstructed him

His liver and kidneys and lungs and heart

Were repositioned and motivated to restart

Drifting off as they stitched him up

Suction cup laced tentacles worked miraculously

At home the man awoke with a start

Clutching at his chest and removing his shirt to inspect

But nothing was revealed but clean white skin

Radiating palely in the cold early morning light