Purple People

Knuckles swollen, teeth clenched,
I pounded my fists without success.
Wedged deep down in the tight recess
of the juniper hedge, I yelled, "Stop!"

Eyebrows drenched, I struggled to see
through vision, distorted, their discs, unsupported
by legs, looming closer -- still closer --
oppressing me, hovering high holding ominous figures,
their skins sporting pigments of purple.

Sci-fi explorers of undefined origins,
red-blue in hue, they were oddly suspended
in bubbles, invincible, slightly off-cue,
telling knock-knock jokes I found utterly
humorless, simply obnoxious, overtly
meticulous, rudely ridiculous --

Little did I know,
they'd stolen the first of my vowels.