..........because we can help you with your problems because we are the inhabitants of the planet your ancestors named after your goddess of love because we are the chosen angels of the universe's inside hemisphere because we understand the second set of quandary laws which govern the tertiary physics of the spirits which ghost what you call your heart because we are the ballastbalancers of chaos and order within those spirits because we were once like you because we were once overundersidewaysdown because we once lived on your planet though that is another story altogether because it is you who are in needof our services because you cried out in wreckage like your forebear the poet Rilke because you are a bent bicycle with a lost spare tirewheel because you are trying to kill yourself because you cannot extract yourself from physicalspiritualemotional debt because you have 42 more truck payments insurance and hospital bills and are over your credit limit with your only asset being that atrophied muscle that was once a healthy heart because you took out all the money you could from your creditcard's cash advance because you've needed to eat drink tea in a coffeehouse and put bologna oh we're sorry gasoline into your toyota's fuel compartment because you have been out of a job since october earth time and have not found another job because you became depressed over unrequited love you suffered a nervous breakdown because you could not go on with life the way it was going because your mindbodyheart said no because your cholesterol was 395 you could not add twoplustwo and had never been outside of your shyness because you were playing your cards so hard your eyecolor changed because until Mariana you felt you had no reason to quit smoking start eating your vegetables and fall in love because you had no will to live because you wanted to kill yourself because the taste of all good things always soured in your mouth because even your friends could not convince you to see differently because you felt you weren't worth the trouble because no girl had let you into her heart because you were too shypimpledwronglooking to be given a chance to know the kind of pleasure a woman can offer because you were vulnerable and unhappy because your planet's misguided judeochristian god had taken all its' anger out on you because you never saw tile reason to believe in such a hurting god so unlike us because you at least knew how important it is to believe in yourself because that's all you have in the end because everything else has been taken from you because of bullies not to mention the girls you've had crushes on you never found a way to ask out so you could go on your first date such as Sandy Michelle Julie Lisa then Lisa then another Lisa Jennie and most hurtingly Mariana because you give so much and were too shyafraid to ask for anything in return because you were once happy because you had a few true friends and all your poems which have been bequeathed to you by us because you need to see the happy side of eros because there will be a girl who will choose you to be the hunter to her the hunted because she likes you enough to say so because you are equal to and better than god because you can apprehend god the way the Corpus Hermeticum requires because you are living by yourself for yourself alone because you must because you need to be alive for that girl to choose you because without you the universe will not know what love on earth is like in the 1990's earth time because you can risk being tendervulnerableshy without sounding sentimental because your words come from us for you are the most expert translator on your planet of our language because you are one of us because you understand and know well the extremes of the hurt of eros-because of Mariana because she stole the quarters from the happiness jukebox your desktop dictionary defines vaguely as a heart because she felt threatened because you came too close because you were a rock too near the glass house of her charade because you humbled her at the clotted nucleus because you gave her a poem of yours about the power of smiles because she gave you a reason to start writing again because you needed to speak to her in a way she might listen and so gave her the letter because you were finding a way to die to stop your hurt and wanted her to know how you felt about her before you died because she wouldn't notice you being tender to her like no other boy before because you knew with your seventh sense that she was hurting and you wanted to help her to stop because she didn't feel good about herself and you knew she could with encouragement because she without knowing had given you the will to live because she was the wind fluting through the chimes your heart is because she had smiled at you and you wanted her to see you smile back because you were in love Stephen you need to know the galaxies will turn in your hands if you only live to let them


Stephen Russell Mayberry

day 26, month of the lions, year 25

translated from the venusian



Copyright © Stephen Russell Mayberry, 1999, 2008.  All Rights Reserved.