The Mahoning County Society For The Investigation Of Ufos

THE MAHONING COUNTY SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF UFOs Across all four walls of the Colorado Room, Voyager Inn in 1969, swept a million years of canyon, wallpapered flat except for the door, where to step through was for a moment to fall down, strata full of your bones flipping past like TV with the vertical gone. Each picture is the same picture refusing to stand still. It’s the same movement: going back, flying forward. When the lights died, space opened wide, the river plied under us, the walls were rock and miles away, the sky a deep and massive thing. On the shimmering screen, quincunxes of light like diadems flew. Pattern signifies intelligence, the man clicking slides said, such pure glows mean benevolence. They have been seen everywhere. They are coming to take you to your future. Over punch, there was a list to sign. The aliens would watch you. They could be doing this already. How would you know? What cannot be seen is the only thing worth believing in, I knew, and placed myself on that paper, ready for salvation. My mother laughed that night I told her, but asked would you go? I said In a minute. Even today, in a minute. --Joseph Allgren © 2009