From Tim Metcalf
Terry Cannon writes (5 March, p 33) that his favourite ever headline in New Scientist is “Everyone came but the earth didn’t move” (31 October 1992, p 5). I have an until-now unpublished sonnet about my favourite, which is “Alien life gets more and more probable every day” (18 May 2002, p 15). I am the author of three poetry books and recent second place winner in the Australian Capital Territory Publishing Awards 2004.
Alien life gets more and more probable every day
A chalkboard, an equation,
Someone to draw then cast the line,
To click the universe onto rewind,
Back beyond the imagination.
Secret agents saying “Put down the chalk.
Now step away from the board, hands raised.”
It could happen, you are afraid;
So hide your calculations and your talk.
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No one knows what anyone knows
And the likelihood is rising;
The probability’s surprising
That we’ll vanish as the cosmos grows.
Only maths can reel its size in,
And the aliens, we suppose.
Bega, New South Wales, Australia
