First Contact

Thus closes my transmission this first time.
You have atomic weights and numbers prime
Mathematic puzzles, cyphers, and equations
Observations, and a slew of emmanations
From our Astronomic art, that would
Encompass half our learning if rightly understood.

Now let's scale those other heights
Set the Universe to rights
Steal bandwidth and some precious litte time,
You imprisoned on your planet, I on mine.
You cannot know our cultures, or the customs of the place
Not our species, nor about the Human Race.
We reach across the vastness, half in hope and half in dread, to a voice unknown and features yet unseen
You'll not hear my words til after I am dead, with the gulf of many light-years in between.

Yet we are brothers, of a sort,
Kith and kin I have methought,
And intellectual equals 'neath the skin, or beit scales,
Or molusc shell, exo-skeleton avails
To protect the concious brain whose communion I crave
By dint of gamma, X, and radio wave

So, let sentient beings relate
Set the cosmic record straight,
Are we pawns, or are we masters of the game ?
Do you woo and love and mate ?
Do you war and kill and hate ?
Are your triumphs and disasters just the same ?

Is it a Universal need,
This passion to succeed,
Primordial and imprinted from our birth ?
Do you a higher order heed ?
Are you pure in thought and deed ?
Is pain and squalour just unique to Planet Earth ?