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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Before they encountered us
\nthe Fomalhauts
\npossessed no concept of self-indulgence
\nworker bees, folk called them
\nthe proverbial dull boy
\nnever mind the head appendages
\nor the scales
\nor how they reproduce through the mail
\n(they had no spam).<\/p>\n
Before we met them
\nthey had no vigilante justice
\nthey found our pornography
\nappealing, and soon invented
\ntheir own, which usually arrived postage due.<\/p>\n
We introduced credit cards,
\nbank loans, compound interest;
\nthey found these novel concepts.
\nWe took them on tours
\nof our marketplaces
\nwhere every price, it appeared,
\nhad been reduced.
\nAmazing the debt these aliens accrued.<\/p>\n
It was direct-mail advertizing
\nthat really did them in–
\nat first the spots were, well, na\u00c3\u00afve
\nbut as the ads race intensified
\nthe Fomarketers learned that sex sells.<\/p>\n
Fomals sporting overlarge
\nsense-enhancing gear in black plastic
\ntore open packages claiming to contain
\nfreeze-dried mail-order brides
\n(really just powdered food products).<\/p>\n
Winsome young Fomies were
\ntearing open their mail too
\nreceiving proposals of marriage
\nfrom princes
\nwrongfully deposed
\nhandsome
\ngenerous.<\/p>\n
A few months later \u00e2\u20ac\u201c captivated
\nby artificial insemination
\nand our hi-tech DNA manipulation,
\nFomies were popping larvae all over:
\nTwins!
\nTriplets!
\nBy the broodsac!
\nThe boatload!
\nwhile the non-brooding fomals
\npostal donors of GM gametes
\n(not one of them a prince
\nor even a duke)
\ntook no responsibility at all.<\/p>\n
Most of these unnatural offspring
\nwere grievously flawed–
\ninjured by experimental methods
\nthat would never have been allowed on humans–
\nalthough they were available in a variety of colors
\nand with naturally perfumed excreta<\/p>\n
We converted them to our religions
\n(no matter which, so long
\nas they selected one or another).
\nWe gave them nihilism, narcissism,
\nsolipsism, existentialism
\n(not to mention pessimism).
\nWe sold them anti-depressants,
\nantioxidants, anti-coagulants,
\nthen we upped the anti.<\/p>\n
The Fomalhauts have recently been
\nreclassified as a vanished species,
\nunfortunately extinct. Their culture
\nand civilization, so many millennia old,
\nsuddenly defunct. A sad coincidence,
\nso soon after encountering us.
\nThey will be missed.<\/p>\n
Image By http:\/\/wellcomeimages.org\/indexplus\/obf_images\/07\/c0\/a5d1fb011c297b84fc9be592c41f.jpgGallery: http:\/\/wellcomeimages.org\/indexplus\/image\/L0040470.html, CC BY 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=36096354<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before they encountered us the Fomalhauts possessed no concept of self-indulgence worker bees, folk called them the proverbial dull boy never mind the head appendages or the scales or how they reproduce through the mail (they had no spam). Before we met them they had no vigilante justice they found our pornography appealing, and soon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1402"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1409,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402\/revisions\/1409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}