The Revenant (A Variation on a Theme by Sufjan Stevens)

When the revenant came down

We couldn’t imagine what it was;

Softly floating from the twilight sky

It landed on our sighing ghostly shore,

Crowding us to wonder in the mist

What odd creature had fallen into

Our dull, humble hamlet’s grasp

 

All cloaked in robes and sleepy breath,

We stood before the placid surface of

The lake, and held candles to the foreign

Steam that billowed from the ship 's hot core,

Whisp'ring faintly in our socks and gowns,

Few daring to say it was not Dream,

And that they were truly awake

 

What must the being have thought,

Upon descending towards our autumn town

And landing carefully atop the beach,

Lights and sensors flashing from beneath

Its oddly curved and wholly alien ship,

And from behind its bright controls seeing

A mass of sleep-deprived humans?

 

With dreams of conquer or peace

It sat before our groggy assembly,

Plotting through a pane of darkened glass,

Thinking silently as we murmured

A welcome that would surely change Highland;

But did it know how it would change the race

Upon whose sleep it had stumbled?