Poetry
Stories
by Mario Milosevic
The alien liked to
read contracts.
It was her favorite
leisure activity
during her time
on our world.
Movies and novels
are okay, she said,
but all of your
lives are here in
these agreements
to behave in
responsible ways
toward each other
at all times. Her
favorites were
marriage licenses
and divorce papers
for the same reason:
they made her cry.
She also liked some
of the ancient ones
that granted the first
peoples access to their
land and allowed them
to keep their culture
and livelihood. She
was amused by an
insurance policy
that detailed a
long list of natural
disasters. Life is
so precarious on your
world, she said, I
sometimes wonder how
any of you have
survived at all.
Featured Poet of the Month Mario Milosevic
Mario Milosevic’s poems and stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Analog, Hitchcock’s, F&SF, and many others. His poetry collections include Animal Life, Fantasy Life, Love Life, and Mario Writes a Poem a Day for a Year and So Can You. A new collection, Alien Life, will be out soon. He lives in the desert Southwest of the United States.