Aliens in a Strange Land

Jeffrey L. Taylor

July 5, 2026

The plants on the Edwards Plateau
look settled.  Before European settlers
arrived, the plateau was grassland.  Wildfires
burned fledgling trees and encouraged fresh grass.
The Indians burned small sections, attracting animals,
and discouraging infernos.  The settlers’ cattle liked
the fire-managed grasslands. They were born
to wildfires.  The settlers not so much.  They
eliminated both Indians and wildfires.

Trees followed the settlers onto the plateau.
Some came from elsewhere in Texas — migrants.
Mountain Cedar seedlings are too bitter
for cattle — opportunists.  Settlers brought
some with them from Europe — immigrants.
Some fled extermination — refugees.  Some plants
hitched a ride — stowaways.

The plateau’s limestone, full of seashells, came here,
seven hundred feet above sea level, from the bottom
of a shallow sea.

None can claim, “We’ve always been here.”

Jeffrey L. Taylor is a retired Software Engineer.  Around 1990, poems started holding his sleep hostage.  He has been published in The Perch, California  Quarterly, Texas Poetry Calendar, and Texas Poetry Assignment.