Millions wondering what life could mean
He stepped into his AirJet
And soared over it all
All the fighting, competitive masses
Caught in Mammon’s thrall
Each fighting one another
To grab the same resource
Defeating each other with wit or guile
Or if needed by brute force
~
The Past
The scene is of a golden dawn
In the distance soft birdcall
All around the dew is sparkling
In serene peace begins it all
Quiet eyes greet the horizon
Brown eyes and bodies both
Absent of guilt and fear
Of greed or sordid oath
In a bond of happy laughter
Which the hunt and plenty create
No separation one from another
United in common fate
The Daeamevii held the seed
Of all that was to come
Twenty thousand generations of sharing
And twenty to make us numb
~
The Future
In the pod all was silence
While below all was noise
In a cacophonic continuum
On the edge of eternity poised
There were a million sources of news
And ten trillion opinions heard
But less truth known than ever
Though few truly cared
Vernon now reached the Outpost
A hundred kilometers square
This was the machine which would travel in time
Nuclear fusion would take Man there
The checks and procedures were done
And he stepped into the Dock
He seated himself before the viewscreen
And the green-numbered digiclock
For Vernon the countdown progressed slowly
Right up to the final hour
When all systems were primed and ready
When the taste on his tongue was sour
Then came the final moment of “Go!”
He was flung headlong into time’s stream
Gazing helplessly forward
At the visions of a seeming dream
For moments all seemed dread and dark
Wars and threat had been everywhere
The factories churned out acrid smoke
And so few seemed to care
Then, the grey buildings that soared to the sky
Reversed and came tumbling down
The skyline, thick with yellow smog
Began to clear toward the dawn
The black cloak of the very air
Began to thin, lighten and shine
Traces of green began to appear
And on the horizon fir and pine
He gazed at the screen in amazement
And then looked at the flashing display
What had read 3,000 a moment ago
Now read 2,000, to his dismay
This was not as they had planned
The speed was much too fast
The fusion network was under strain
As he flew headlong into the past
Strange lines appeared upon the ground
And all the SkyPods were now gone
Even the strange metallic ones
That flew slowly across the sun
He saw people walking on the ground
Parks appeared where none had been
He feared for diseases the walkers could catch
As all around rose the green
His eyes then widened to amazed orbs
At the scene which greeted him next
There was land where only city had been
Broad plains now, no endless complex
He had known a world where City was one
A world undivided through instant travel
The concept of all else was alien
And he felt his mind unravel
Faster and faster the figures flew
In negative realms they were now
-3,000, -4,000, -6,000 years
As a line furrowed his sweating brow
All trace of his City had now vanished
And of the cities which had taken its place
Now down the millennia was only open land
And of humans not a trace
-12,000, -20,000, -70,000 years
Round and round the green lights spun,
And began to befuddle his brain
Oceans flowed and the sky flared red
Mountains rose up and fell again
-120,000, -250,000, -500,000, -750,000
Mesmerized by the endless flashing scene
He began to nod and drift
The world in a state of constant flux
Where all seemed to shift . . .
~
He woke with a start and stared at the dial
He could hardly believe what he saw
Three million years and more had passed!
He gazed at the passing flow
There was a plain once more in view
After each upheaval he saw
Then suddenly a flickering figure
Appeared and he stared slack jawed
He slammed each and every button hard
And in desperation smashed the screen
The machine came to a halt much too fast
As he died he heard a scream
All the accumulated energy arrived
And the future exploded in the past
And everything and everyone
In a thousand miles square took the blast
In time it was over
And the acrid smoke blew away
All was once more peaceful
This time to stay that way
For not only were the forefathers gone
Our line from then vanished too
There would be no future for the human race
And no time machine, it’s true
A perfect loop was fixed in space
An enigma within lost time
The Earth would now never know of Man
And you will never read this rhyme
Grimbleweed
Grimbleweed grimaced out at another grey day
And gazed at his pungent socks in disarray
Grim castle walls reflected each thought of dismay
All was wasted, grim, empty, doomed to decay
The snot hung from his grizzled nose and shone
With a dim light from clouds rain-filled and wan
His putrid, ragged cloak hung low, much trod on
A gnarled ugly duckling who was never a swan
A grim thought traced ragged lines ‘cross his brow
Evil green teeth sneered all that venom would allow
He’d show them all today. He’d show that proud cow
No one would laugh. Not ever. Not now.
Thin cruel fingers rubbed skin and cracked nail
He’d see them all off to dark dungeon or to jail
Spitting in faces that sought mercy to no avail
His face then shuddered, cracked in a smile
The first for many years which had graced that dial
But a foul, ugly thing, not nice by a mile
Ashen, warty skin all bloodlust and bile
He looked round his quarters for one last time
His black heart lifting like fermented quicklime
All would be made quite dead by his casting of rhyme
And the Queen’s land killed by a creeping green slime
He stood aloft on the battlements. He gave his last cry
That all before him would now decay and die
That not one soul would be left to give a last sigh
As beauty all vanished as he brought its end nigh.
Home In The Stars
We laughed at the legends,
it was a common thread
in all our conversations
as the ship onward sped
We met each day at one
to have an exchange of views
A brief moment in time
between our long work queues
The legends were ever popular
and ever raised a laugh
No one truly believed them,
well, perhaps one . . . but only half
His name was Osrisa
and he rarely spoke
He simply sat and stared
at the simpler folk
We had been journeying
for six whole months by then
Across our galaxy end to end
toward who knew what and when
The legends said there had been a world
we had once come from
Ten thousand long years before
within a global storm
No one gave it any credence
except for one, Osrisa
It seemed so very quaint now,
like the notion of a visa
For three thousand years
the League had been as one
No nations and no difference
between son and native son
Twelve planets wide of ten trillion souls,
a confederation proud and noble
with a history strong and full of pride
and a culture multiglobal
So the idea of one small planet
where all people lived in strife,
separated and always fighting
all their stressful life . . .
Well, it seemed a total joke,
something dreamed up to scare the kids
A bunch of nuts competing madly
in selfish power bids
We laughed and laughed,
no credence did we give
to such crazy chaos and stupidity,
it was no way to live
But Osrisa kept his silence . . .
About him not much was known
He’d been a late arrival,
no documents had been shown
We approached the sector cautiously
Slowdown took five days
The screens were starting to de-snow
and reach a clearer phase
The stars began to sharpen
and the darkness no longer blur
Black dust clouds became visible
and the crew began to stir
and provided some company
For the so-bored crewmen
they were pleased to see
And so finally we parked in orbit
around a small grey moon
Our duty, to survey its partner,
arriving none too soon
Looking from our vantage
the planet was in full view
but densely covered in thick cloud
so down to look we flew
There were just four of us
Zil, Than, Golx, Osrisa and the crew
We’d stay for a week and survey
and do all we had to do
Below the clouds the land was bare
and in the distance, our target hill
We flew to its mist-shrouded foot
and above the dunes we hovered, still
On rotors we dropped to the mound
and came together to make our plan
Here were the ragged spikes we sought
and from basepoint then did fan
They caught their last glimpse of Osrisa
as he sped fast to their right,
talking avidly into his handphone,
around a dune and out of sight . . .
~
“Evidence of structure now revealed . . .
Looking to see what is concealed . . .
Scan indicates an entrance-way . . .
Heading there slowly, removing decay . . .”
“Within tunnel now, metallic, cold . . .
Distinctly other, very old
Dropping down much, much deeper . . .
The angle is becoming steeper . . .”
“Now plane leveling out in front . . .
Metal doorway found, giving shunt . . .
Passing through to larger space . . .
Vaulted ceiling, cobwebbed face . . .”
“Completely empty hanger found . . .
My echoing footsteps, ghostly sound . . .
Wait! A logscreen. Requiring power . . .
Will it work? At this late hour . . . ?”
“Yes, a trace . . . cells may still function . . .
Will re-wire bypassing old s/ware version . . .
Now the screen is flickering . . . I swear . . . it’s true
Cam on . . . and now relaying image direct to you . . .”
~
((Flicker))
“Ahh . . . . okay. It is today the twenty second of December two thousand two hundred and three at twenty two hundred hours seventeen minutes, twenty seven seconds. My name is sub-lieutenant Joe Mensch. If anyone’s listening to this . . . eh . . . I’m sorry, I’m no great shakes at this kind of thing . . . I can’t really do justice to what I want to say . . . sorry, not trained for it . . . What can I tell you? If you find this I hope you’ll wonder where we went and why. I really hope so . . . maybe you can find us and those we’re leaving behind and save us . . . I don’t know, what’s the good of this . . . ? ((sigh))
Voice offscreen: “Hurry it up Joe! You’re needed on deck . . .”
“Okay, okay . . .”
“I don’t know what to say . . .” ((silence))
“This used to be such a beautiful place . . .” ((tears))
“All our history is here . . . it wasn’t all bad, believe me . . . we screwed up monumentally in the end I know . . . I’d have to admit that . . . It can’t be denied . . . not now . . .”
“We’re not off on some adventure here you know! It’s no glorious exploration we’re on, like in the movies or something . . .”
“We have to leave.”
“The . . . heat . . . became unbearable . . . In the early years it wasn’t so bad . . . it was even nice to have a little more warmth and such in wintertime . . . you know . . .? But later when the food riots began when the Great Heat began to hit . . . and when so many died . . . .”
“It will sound strange I know, but even such a time as that was almost nothing to what came later . . . . I’m sorry, I can’t possibly describe it . . . .”
“We have suffered so much . . .” ((tears))
“. . . And now . . . we few are leaving. Almost no one knows about it, about us . . . I’m sure they’d call us rats leaving the sinking ship if they did know. The people up there are desperate. They know they’re finished. It’s complete hell topside . . .”
“I mean, we’re not in much better shape . . . How could we be? We are losing everything we’ve ever
known. And we’re going who knows where? We have such a small chance . . . Even if we find a place, it’s not going to be easy. It will be anything but easy . . . Everything will have start at square one. If we have the basics we’ll be lucky. But we will be alive I suppose . . . we will be alive . . . We will have lost everything and need to build everything again, slowly . . . an agonizing future . . . from scratch. There are no happy hearts here at that prospect. Maybe you can understand . . . I don’t know . . .”
“Listen, I’m sorry . . . If there was someone here of a literary bent they could have told you so much more . . . But we don’t have anyone like that aboard for reasons you’ll understand. The selection process was the most rigorous ever put together. Our function is to be the mere seed corn of the future . . . if there is one at all . . . the tiny hope of our leaders that humanity can still survive. We can afford no passengers on this journey . . . on this last journey . . .”
((Urgently)) “If you can help us please. Please, please . . . Bring as many of the others as you can with you . . .
“I have to go. ((sigh)) I wonder, I wonder who you are . . . .”
((Whispering softly, close to mike)) I shouldn’t ask this I know but . . . please, could you find Lori, my wife at . . .”
~
Before the speaker signed off the screen
Osrisa listened to the given address
There were tears in both their eyes
in that moment of distress
Osrisa’s tears were still in his eyes