I cruised down Highway 82

One moonless August night.

A million Mississippi stars

Were twinkling their light.

The fragrance of magnolia vines

Hung lightly in the air.

The radio played soft and low,

And wind blew through my hair.

The night was sweet and cloudless.

I’d never felt so free!

(And soon I’d come to realize

How sweet freedom can be!)

Then suddenly amid the stars,

A large round object glowed.

I watched it, fascinated,

As I slowly left the road.

I stepped out of my car and couldn’t help but look above.

It mesmerized me, drew me

Like a long-forgotten love . . .

It hovered right above me,

Yet it never made a sound.

A beam of light enveloped me!

I lifted off the ground.

I ascended rather quickly

On my unexpected ride.

A hatch began to open,

And I finally stopped . . . inside.

The lab was cold and sterile,

Like a rapist’s sharpened tool.

No sense in trying to escape.

I’d have to be a fool!

I lost all sense of time and space.

Disoriented, sick,

I tried to scream.

No sound came out.

My tongue felt hot and thick.

Blacking out, I just surrendered

To a primal sense of fear.

Maybe I’d wake up and I’d be

Far away from here!

I woke up naked on a table,

Cold as stainless steel

They’d strapped me and restrained me

Like a sacrificial meal!

My captors stood just three feet tall,

Not many, just a few.

I wondered, in a thousand years,

Would we look like them, too?

Their eyes were black,

Like secret pools from some forgotten city,

Cold as ice.

(In ONE Gray’s eyes,

I THOUGHT I saw some pity.)

My mouth was pryed wide open

With a stainless steel device.

Red laser beams drilled holes into my teeth,

Not once, but twice!

Tissue samples, surgery,

Experiments galore!

They probed me and they sliced me

Till I could take no more.

They used no anesthesia.

I could hardly stand the pain.

Much more of this and I was sure

I’d slowly go insane!

"She’d be a perfect carrier,"

One Gray said to another.

"The embryo grows restless.

What it needs now is a mother."

Another cut . . .

Another scream!

"Oh, God, please let this be a dream!"

Then, they placed a tiny chip

Inside my open brain.

The aliens could track me now

In sunshine or in rain.

I woke up in my car

At twenty minutes after one,

But my alien encounter

Had only just begun,

For although I was a virgin,

And still am as I write,

I later had a baby girl . . .

With eyes as black as night.