Format: Chapbook
Size: 5 ½ x 8 ½
Pages: 24
When the Pilotless Plane Arrives
Ann Cefola
Ann Cefola is the author of the books Free Ferry (Upper Hand Press, 2017) and Face Painting in the Dark (Dos Madres Press, 2014); chapbooks St. Agnes, Pink-Slipped (Kattywompus Press, 2011) and Sugaring (Dancing Girl Press, 2007); and translations of Hélène Sanguinetti’s The Hero (Chax Press, 2018) and Hence this cradle (Seismicity Editions, 2007). A Witter Bynner Poetry Translation Residency recipient at the Santa Fe Art Institute, she also received the Robert Penn Warren Award judged by John Ashbery. Ann lives in the New York suburbs with her husband Michael and their shelter-rescued dog, Daisy.
When the Pilotless Plane Arrives
– After This Island Earth (Universal-International, 1955)
Get in. Lean back. No need for seat-belt strapped.
Like Dr. Cal Meachum, you’ll be taken to plantation where
Exeter and Brack, both cliff-like brow, albino mane, expect
your research to end war; but where? After you mention Mozart
at dinner, Exeter says Oh! Your composer. You and scientist Ruth,
who refuses to recall skinny-dipping in Vermont with you,
escape in small plane, which Exeter’s saucer beams aboard
en route to Metaluna, whose ionic shield failing under
Zahgon attack you cannot possibly fix but Ruth admits
that chilly New England lake, and despite meteors
fire-bombing Metaluna, alarming journey to this
devastated planet from blue Earth, you hug
this truth like you once held her naked hand.