Outer Space 1970

" There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture”.

I remember us four kids huddled up to our Mum with blankets on our heads,

excited just to be awake and not told to be in our beds,

We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity.

That black screen the deep voice

the white pulsating little dot

The lines moving freely us kids really scared a lot

For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery, which reaches from the inner mind to — The Outer Limits

The flickering screen with blurry lines

and static all happening so soon

A real live close up of the newly walked on moon

Those squiggly lines back and forth

that race across the screen

With its dramatic music as a kid

I remember it was the scariest thing I’d ever seen.

I remember getting a telescope and looking up at the moon, then lying awake many nights, wondering,

if we would be invaded soon.