NEWSPOEM 11 JANUARY 1996

The Space Shuttle Endeavor was launched before dawn to rendezvous with a Japanese satellite and retrieve eggs spawned by newts in orbit. By noon the newts had taken over both the shuttle and the satellite and had announced in Japanese and English that all the world's militaries were to be dismantled and reorganized as space programs. Nuclear weapons would be detonated outside the biosphere to propel rockets filled with artifacts of war outside the solar system. The purpose of this is not to reach other planets, but it is not to display evidence of intelligent life on this planet.