Feb 1st – Circle in the sky

February 1^st – Circle in the Sky

12.36-12.46

The circles started appearing

one Wednesday afternoon.

Atmospheric phenomena,

they said on the news,

nothing to worry about.

Photos rolled in from across

the globe, all showing

the same thing: perfect

circles, a white outline

outlining clear space.

Jets were sent to intercept,

to pierce the ring, investigate

the empty space and the

bordering ring.

We can’t get close, the pilots

reported, in their languages,

scrambled and unscrambled:

We can see them, but they’re

always the same distance away.

Scientists went on TV

to talk about what they might

mean, speculating.

Conspiracy theorists theorised:

they’re spying on us, they claimed,

The Russians, Americans, Chinese.

The circles stayed exactly

where they first appeared.

Preachers preached from pulpits:

A sign from God, they exclaimed,

He’s testing our faith.

The Americans, believing in

a higher power, placed their faith

in long range missiles, and

launched them at the sky,

from an unspecified location,

live-streamed. The Russians

held back, watching, their

best men on the ground

at the launch site. The missiles

passed through, unimpeded.

The events were watched

from the ISS, orbiting its own

circles, 400 kilometres

above the ground. The circles,

even from above, stayed exactly

where they first appeared.

Exactly twenty-nine weeks

after that Wednesday afternoon,

the circles went, leaving

more questions than answers,

a number of cults, and a

testing of faiths. Small children

now draw circles in the sky.

 

 

Inspired by a prompt from here