Aliens At Last

Aliens At Last

A chunk of impure ice

orbits a devastated world;
patterns, fragments of a circuit,

lattice the frozen thing—
part of an ice computer?
How exciting!

Keep it cold; this could be a key 

to understanding the arts & literature 

of another evolved sentience
or a fragment of monsterware 

that existed only to destroy.

The AI finally renders its verdict:

tax records 120 kiloyears old,
all that's left 

of some species that annihilated itself
before it amounted to anything.

Nice moon, though.