Kuu's Log
**CONTACT**
We reached orbit.
Oceans glitter while Terra lulls,
whether basked in moonlight
or sun.
Kuu, it’s a peaceful orb
with delicate life,
my best cadet whispered
in calm.
And so we studied.
We discovered that bodies are comprised of water,
yet our extremities
cannot easily pass through them.
We made a mess.
We prod,
but this is found to be upsetting.
All species seem to function
for survival
except
the loud ones
who put crude
technologies
in plastic casings
and stare all day.
We disrupted their communication
for one full circle on Terra.
Panic set in.
They were forced to grieve.
We noticed they named things
after ancient languages.
Do they know how to progress?
We joined in this game,
called them secundum,
Latin for ‘dependent.’
**LOG 1**
It is January 20, 2017
on Terra.
The secundum like pomp
and circumstance.
We are watching
the 6th quadrant.
Many have gathered
to view an orange being.
Many others take to their plastic.
It is all incoherent.
#Fucktrump
#Lovetrumpshate
#notmypresident
The orange secundum encourages
incomprehensible
spikes in anxiety
and rage.
Different colors seem to have different
status.
What they do with their genitals
also seems to be of irrational concern
to others.
We move in to study the orange secundum.
**LOG 2**
January 20, 2017 – evening.
The orange secundum proved easy to procure.
We marked hostiles with primitive weapons
who appeared to be protecting this being,
but when provoked, they seemed willing
to give in.
**LOG 3**
January 21, 2017
The cadets call the procured secundum,
Yuge.
When monitoring the plastic screens
it was a sound the orange secundum made
often.
Yuge is sedated.
Yuge seems to dream in gold hues.
Yuge seems to be the only secundum in these dreams.
Yuge likes monuments that are “yuge.”
Yuge seems to be a word relating to size.
**LOG 4**
January 22, 2017
It is time to make contact.
Yuge awakens.
We do not understand any language from Terra.
Their languages are aggressive,
sloppy.
Secundum rarely seem to understand
one another.
Yuge seems angry.
Yuge appears to be mimicking
gestures of tying things,
or milking small animals
with his extremities
as Yuge tries to communicate.
We continue to monitor Yuge’s neural activity
while we communicate through visual means.
We show Yuge a map
from Terra’s 6th quadrant
to sector 48
in galaxy
12.
Mirra.
Home.
The color of lavender.
Yuge is imagining a golden wall
around our home.
Yuge sees explosions.
Yuge is wondering about our currency.
We have no currency.
We need to make strides in understanding unsubstantiated emotion.
Hate. Why hate?
Yuge sees a Terra without color.
A Mirra without us.
**LOG 5**
We have left Yuge
in containment today.
Yuge gets loud over something called
a lawyer.
Yuge is thinking we owe currency
for his captivity.
Yuge wants to sell this story
as entertainment.
Yuge wants to communicate with me.
Before I ready a translation module,
I wonder if Yuge
values communication.
First published in Yes, Poetry, January 20, 2017