‘Adelaide & the Aliens’ by Jonathan Greenhause
Adelaide doesn’t believe in aliens, but
they believe in her.
They hover above her one-room apartment
on the outskirts
of Tempe, obsessively quiz each other
on her favorite quotes,
on which guy she’s most likely
to wind up
stupidly marrying. They’ve chosen her
on a whim,
kept track of her canny inability
to accept criticism,
cringed at her illogical pairing of
Oreos & guacamole.
They find her so fascinating because
she’s impenetrable,
so unlike the seven billion other inhabitants,
all of them
unknowingly wasting their final years
before the inevitable
alien invasion. Adelaide doesn’t believe
in herself, but
the aliens are utterly helpless, can do
nothing to help her.
From issue #6: spring/summer 2018
About the Author
Winner of the 2017 Prism Review Poetry Contest, Jonathan Greenhause’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Crannóg, The Dark Horse, The Moth, The Rialto, Southword Journal, Subtropics and The Stinging Fly. His second chapbook, Secret Traits of Everyday Things, was published by Encircle Publications in 2017.
