Although the only unidentified flying objects I have ever personally encountered were in energetic arguments with my wife when her volatile temper was stimulated, lately there has been some rather strange testimony from believable sources that perhaps are worth consideration. If these professionals described close encounters with Santa Clause and his Mach 3 reindeer I might have more serious doubts but these guys are retired high-ranking US Air Force officers who were responsible for the nuclear security of the country and that does confer some authority I can respect. Their statements can be found on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtmpaM0PqyI&feature=player_embedded#!

The first UFO reports I saw were back in 1947 when a pilot named Kenneth Arnold was flying a plane in the state of Washington and spotted some strange objects with flashing lights that wobbled in the air like floating saucers although they did not look like saucers. A detailed report can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold_UFO_sighting

I had also heard about Foo fighters which were reported by both sides in the military aerial conflicts in WWII from 1944 onwards. They also were glowing flying objects and the military assumed that they were some sort of secret weapons from the opposing side but nobody ever found out what they actually were There is an article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter which gives details.

Since there have been reports up into the present day about these odd things everybody is now aware that something funny is going on but the standard media ridicule and the multitudes of doubtless hoaxes reduced these reports in common perception to the same status as many of the other florid bits of nonsense in popular publications.

A recent report has it that the UN has or is about to appoint a diplomat to any interstellar visitor who has the temerity to make her, him or itself openly known. See http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/09/alien_diplomacy?page=3

Considering the generally ineffective performance of that general body up to now it may trumpet the final demise of humanity.

Nevertheless the great unknown faces everybody when viewing a clear star-filled night sky with its infinite potential for mystery spiced with a bit of paranoia considering the wiggly monsters with voracious tooth and claw that thrash around movie screens slavering after human flesh these days. At the moment it seems vampires are a bit more popular since humans, perhaps out of all the ads for cola drinks, may be more viewed as beverage containers than the stuff of solid sustenance but as soon as some innocent tentacled diplomat emerges offering a bouquet for welcome, the cosmic monster may gain more consideration.  

RETREAT

 They spoke once of

The broken edge

Where world and sky

Made meeting

In catastrophe.

Where seas fell down

In steady roar

Into the sky,

Or pits of Hell.

What happened there

No one could tell.

No one had seen

Or cared to see

This horrific mystery.

When Magellan

Sought to find

This birthplace of infinity,

The Earth had sealed

Unto itself.

Grand horror fell

Back into the mind.

Once there were

Great man-shaped things

That lit the stars

And ate the moon

And rolled the Sun

Across the sky.

They shook the earth

And pissed the rain

And laughed with thunder

And disdain

At mankind’s loss

And silly gain.

They told when

To plant and sing

And fear and die

And everything.

But, somehow,

Upon looking close

They proved far

Too bellicose.

The rules are calmer now,

It seems.

They’ve tumbled back

Into our dreams. 

One God, at times,

Is still up there

Behind the stars

Somehow, somewhere.

He fusses on morality

And fiddles with

Our destiny,

But seems, most times,

If will is free,

Existing inconsistently.

His eyes are red,

His thoughts are tired.

His beard as white as snow.

The ovens in his antique Hell

Are burning very low.

The World, I fear,

Will soon dismiss

This Father of

Immortal bliss.

There is no longer

Any spoor

Of Moon creatures

Of Cavour,

And Mars has turned

To rocky dust.

Barsoom, it seems,

Is a bust.

And so the monsters

File away.

Locally

They’ve had their day.

But out beyond

Centaurus arise

The monsters

With their death-ray eyes.

There, around alien fires,

The spooks and gods

And monsters stalk.

The gods strum softly

On their lyres

While things

With twisty pseudopods

 Drip acid slime and talk

In garbled yowls,

Soprano howls,

Of starships come

All filled with men,

That monsters reign

Supreme again.