This is an Offer You Can’t Refuse

Andrew Kozma
· in ,

When the aliens came, I said, No, I will not go. But they would not take no for an answer.

They said, Your planet is backward. In space we have televisions with infinite resolution. We have theme parks you will never leave. In space every- one is young, all the time.

I was polite. I shut the door.

They said, Everyone else has left. Come and be happy.

I said, Don’t hold your breath.

They held their breath. They turned blue. They were already blue. It turns out they didn’t need to breathe.

The aliens said, All your family and all your friends are right up there. They pointed to a star that might as well have been Heaven.

They said, All your problems will be solved. They said, This is an offer you can’t refuse.

I refused.

They said, You can’t.

Topics: ,
Andrew Kozma’s poems have appeared in 32 Poems, White Whale Review, Grist,and Subtropics; his non-fiction has appeared in The Iowa Review; and his fiction will appear in DIAGRAM. His first book of poems, City of Regret (2007), won the Zone 3 First Book Award, and he has been the recipient of a Houston Arts Alliance Fellowship, a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship, and a D. H. Lawrence Fellowship. He currently lives in Houston.