copyright by me.
[ background music: distant voices on the interstellar radio
voices without words. voices expressing feelings of joy, sadness,
happiness, resolution, danger… and it went something like…]
Sitting up late one night,
years ago it was,
on my first interstellar voyage.
Listening to one of the off channels,
on my cabin radio hookup.
And then I heard them,
distant voices in the night,
singing, no words could I hear,
happiness, joy, sadness,
exultation.
Warning of danger, resoluteness,
then they cut out,
we went into FTL drive.
I didn’t mention those voices.
But I did hear of someone,
who talked about them,
was told he was wrong,
no such channel on the cabin radios.
I tuned in again,
the next night,
the dial didn’t reach that number anymore,
skipped it,
and the ones around it,
oh well.
Later, on my seventh voyage,
I heard them again,
I had read of a warning,
calling them Sirens of The Galaxy.
Odd, I thought,
I hadn’t felt compelled,
to visit them,
just idle curiosity to hear them,
once more.
Soothing they were,
nothing compelling me to listen,
anymore.
I heard them not,
for many a long year,
then I heard them once again,
on a radio band,
outside the typical settings,
they sang a song of happiness,
joy, sadness, battle,
and I heard them,
Nevermore.
Years later,
I received a note,
“Sinbad,” it read,
“those voices are for another,
your voyages have taken another path.”