Walking Out, Tentacle in Hand －タコの足を握って出掛ける－

I was interested by two very different news items this week.

In the first, a scientist from Oxford University warned against trying to contact alien species.

“The trouble is, we don’t know what proportion of alien civilizations is hostile, and what proportion is friendly,” he said. 

In the second news item, a woman who went on her second date with a man got irritated with him when he made a rude comment about another woman they passed on the street. 

The stranger, who was holding a flower in her hand, looked unhappy.

“What’s wrong with her?” said the man on the date.  “Why doesn’t she cheer up?” 

The man’s date got annoyed by his harsh comment, saying, “There could be many reasons she is unhappy.  Maybe she is coming back from a funeral!”

So she broke off her relationship.

What would happen if a human went on a date with an alien?  Could human and alien get along?

“

I fell in love with an alien being,

Whose skin was jelly, whose teeth were green.

I was over the moon, I asked her back to my place,

Than I married the monster from outer space.

 

We walked out, tentacle in hand,

You could sense that the Earthlings did not understand.

They’d go, nudge-nudge when we got off the bus,

Saying, “That extra-terrestrial’s not like us.”

”

Edited extracts from John Cooper-Clark’s poem, “I married a monster from outer space” 

I think John Cooper-Clark is right.  A human-alien date would experience problems.

 

Vocabulary:

a tentacle – a flexible limb used by some underwater creatures to grasp objects.  An octopus has eight tentacles

to be hostile – to show opposition or to be unfriendly

to be irritated – to be slightly angry or annoyed

a funeral – a ceremony held after someone has died, usually including their burial or cremation

to be over the moon – to be delighted

nudge-nudge – to nudge someone is to poke them gently, often with an elbow.  This is usually done to attract someone’s attention without other people noticing.  In the poem, people nudge each other as the human-alien couple pass.  It is a way to show their disapproval without being noticed by the unusual couple.