What Happens in Space-Time
by Greg Beatty

Ads, songs, pop culture detritus
they all say the same thing:
What happens in Vegas
stays in Vegas.
The idea is spreading.
Now they say it about Mexico.
Soon, perhaps, Michigan.

It's alluring, or it was.
The idea that one could,
you could, I could go
to a place far away from
everywhere, cast off all
restraints. Go wild.
And leave the shit behind.

It's alluring. Or rather,
it was, until it started
to happen to us.
When spirits, swamp gas
aliens, elder gods, others,
started coming to earth
having a good time—
a good time for them—
then leaving, leaving us
with the pain, the ruptured
psyches, the half-formed cults
the pulp fiction and theories
of conspiracies, the strange babies
the colours out of space,
the tendrils out of time
to clean up, on Monday mornings
well, that's not so much fun—
not so much fun for us.
Sadly, what happens in space-time
stays in space-time.
And so do we.