The Shape-Shifting Alien Poem by David Welch

Jenna lived in rural Wyoming lands,
where grass rolled over small ridges and buttes,
a small town way out in the cow country,
where the ranchers still throw lassos in loops.

She was driving out to see her boyfriend,
who owned a ten thousand-acre large spread,
he had a big house, riders and a herd,
and was a keeper, all her girlfriends said.

It struck her funny that he'd done so well,
since her man had not been born around here,
they said when we came here eight years ago
he'd shied away from a mustang in fear!

She supposed he must've overcome that,
since now he rode like a weathered cowboy,
he'd bought his own place, made himself a name,
and had brought Jenna no small bit of joy.

He wasn't expecting to see her now,
but she knew that Calvin would understand,
the diner had been sheer hell this morning,
she'd even been groped by a sketchy man.

She needed a break, to hash this all out,
Calvin always had a way to comfort,
and he liked to say that she was his world,
she was sure that he would be there for her.

When she pulled up the whole ranch was quiet,
the hands must have been all out in the hills,
but she saw Calvin's horse at the corral,
had he decided to just hang back and chill?

If that was the case, it was good for her,
she would've hated being here all alone,
so Jenna walked up the big farmer's porch
and noiselessly entered her boyfriend's home.

She was tied, didn't bother to yell,
just padded upstairs to his big bedroom,
the lights were off but a translucent glow
seemed to pierce through the darkness and the gloom.

Inside she saw a bipedal figure
dressed all up in Calvin's battered work duds,
a flat-faced being with a slit for a mouth,
and two huge eyes, both the color of mud.

The skin was smooth, with no human blemish,
a vibrant, bioluminescent green,
and when the figure turned to see Jenna
she loud out a truly terrified scream!

"Jenna, what- "the creature began to say,
speaking the words in Calvin's own voice,
then slumped down and muttered to itself,
"Well I guess no I don't have any choice."

There before her eyes the green skin shifted,
the figure became Calvin once again,
he frowned and awkwardly looked to his feet...
"Well, I guess I should explain all this then.

"You've probably figured it out by now,
I am not really a human being,
my home is three whole galaxies away,
and the form that you now are seeing

"is due to the fact that my species can
sample and replicate strange DNA,
but every few weeks I have to recharge,
I'm sorry that you saw me that way.

"This image once belonged to an old man,
I touched his corpse at a funeral home,
didn't want to copy one of the living,
so I adopted his form as my own.

"I made myself look like his young self though,
felt it would be easier to fit it,
and in this form, I feel all that men do,
I know it's enough to make your head spin..."

Jenna just gasped, her mind still was reeling,
Calvin said, "Come on babe, please talk to me."
Jenna shook her head, "How...what? No...how...why?
What you're saying...it just cannot be! "

Calvin nodded sadly, "Yes dear, it is,
but if you give me a chance to explain,
I think you'll see we're not so different,
that what drives me is a common refrain.

"You see though my people can change their shape,
most of them feel a strong need to conform,
it's even written into their own genes,
go-along-to-get-along, it's the norm.

"But I'm a genetic aberration,
excessive individual traits,
one-in-a-thousand, they lock us away,
put us down as a dangerous mistake.

"I knew once they figured what I really was
they would all be coming for my head,
rather than wait to be jailed or cut down
I stole myself a spaceship and I fled.

"I wandered the stars for three hundred years,
where I could live freely, anywhere,
but there's little life in the universe,
and intelligence is incredibly rare.

"I search to other whole galaxies,
found sentient life on time within each,
both were as tyrannical as my home,
fear no safe-haven would I ever reach.

"And when I came here to the Milky Way,
I admit I was running out of hope,
this galaxy hes less life than others,
despite the vastness of size and of scope.

"But then in a backwater spiral arm
I stumbled upon radio transmissions,
traced them back to their source, this planet,
and found a world that was truly a vision.

"I'd never seen so much life on one world,
and a species just entering space...
I landed in the ocean near Long Island,
I just had to go explore the place.

"But as I wandered through New York City
my hopes soured, and then began to sink,
people like livestock, herded this way and that,
endless laws...and good lord what a stink!

"Was beginning to fear there was no escape,
that there was no place to which I could fly,
then I saw something in a pawn-shop window,
and old western, and it did catch my eye!

"Men up on horseback, riding across the plains,
the mere sight of it stirred something in me,
I knew I had found something truly great,
never had I seen somebody so free.

"That's why I cam out to the western states,
and though horses were frightening at first,
once I learned to ride through the spaces
I found a pleasure to sublime for words.

"That's how I got here, that's why I say,
why this alien chose a cowboy's life,
the freedom I have to live as I choose...
I tell you, nothing every felt more right.

"And what I said before, it was the truth,
I feel everything that a man feels,
that include my great love for you Jenna,
don't doubt for one second that it's real."

He paused and let her try to take this in,
but she was flustered, unable to speak,
and what words she managed came out all wrong,
she had trouble just keeping her feet.

After a while she managed to croak:
"I-I need to think...I need to go."
She stumbled out, and back to her car,
question everything she did know.

Calvin made no move to stop her exit,
she drove quickly back to her place at once,
with so much swirling around in her head
she wouldn't see him again for two months.

She didn't know how to comprehend it,
her mind just went in circles and raged...
a shape-shifting alien was her boyfriend?
And was at least three hundred years of age?

She had just wanted herself a cowboy,
now she had slept with another species?
And who exactly could she tell of this?
Alien boyfriends, right, who would believe?

When Jenna finally did go back there
she had questions, a long list to ask,
found him sending his hands out to work,
watched them riding up into the hills fast.

When he saw he his face quickly went grim,
he said, "I didn't think you would return."
She said, "Took some time to mull it over,
not exactly an easy thing to learn.

"But I have questions that need to be asked,
and you're going to answer every one,
if you hold back on any of them
that whatever we have here is done."

He just nodded, and motioned her to start,
she said, "First thing you have to tell me
is how do I know there's no aliens germs
that will give me some whacked-out disease? "

He said, "I have been here for eight whole years
and no sickness has come of me yet,
nor have I suffered from any of yours,
so I'm thinking it is a safe bet."

She said, "We've already slept together,
is there some hybrid child on it's way? "
He said, "No, you are too different
to meld with my species' core DNA."

Jenna said, "Well that solves one big concern,
but it raises up another one still,
I have always wanted a big family,
but if I stay here then I never will."

He just smiled, "That will not be the case,
adoption is mankind's greatest creation,
after all you took in this refugee,
you want kids? We'll adopt a whole nation! "

She was surprised by his exuberance,
and smiled, but motioned him to calm,
"There's one more thing that has worried me,
it has been bothering me all along.

"How do I know you are telling the truth,
that this isn't some type of charade,
that I won't look up and see ships above
killing us all in a fiery rain? "

He said, "You think I am some sort of spy?
I assure you, that is not how things are,
my people don't know this world exists,
only I have ever wandered this far."

Finally she look him straight in the eyes,
said, "And what if you take your ship and leave? "
He grinned, "I sank my ship in the ocean,
so I'm afraid I'm here permanently."

She released a breath she had been holding
for going on two torturous months,
she laughed, "I once asked God for a cowboy,
he has a funny way of sending one..."

He laughed and said, "That you'll always have,
but if you'll excuse me, I have to go,
the boys just slack off if I'm not out there."
She smiled, said, "I will see you at home.

She watched him chase after the cowboys,
brought to life by the thrill of the ride,
crossed time and space just be a rancher...
Jenna chuckled, and made her way inside.