Meditation #7 -- temptation in the sky

We once dreamed mankind someday might reach the stars;
Pure knowledge the prize to be won, so we thought.
Then came that cursed day when star-people reached us;
Invasion we feared, but seduction they brought.

They showed us their truths, horrors we'd never known;
So said we -- but lying, for know them we did.
The nightmares that writhe in the darkness of space
Are mirrored in us, in the dark of the id.

As they are, we dread that we too may become;
For what we have learned we can never unlearn.
And those who have seen it can never unsee,
And those who have gone there choose not to return.

For they welcome all, those alluring far worlds;
Ships always stand ready, and passage is free,
For dreamers who'd live out the darkness within;
Aboard the next starship -- that's where you'll find me.