They Never Came

Our town prepared for invasion
by admonishing the taxpayers to
invest in two huge sirens erected
at strategic places. And to keep
in voice these metal-throated robots
practice their warning at eleven o’clock
on the fifteenth of each month.
We grow used to it knowing the
barbarians are not at the gates.
But still we regret the money spent
and it irritates us to be reminded
at eleven o’clock on the fifteenth
of each month that the Russians never came—
and we find it hard to forgive them.