lady anti

[poetjohncompton]

    the now

& silence sweeps the nation
as we wait for her to walk onto the balcony
to speak.

the mechanical heart
ticks in the back of my ear
reminding me of seconds
that shuttered
the ground. an uneasy:

we follow the righteous lady.
she rose from the dust & ash & collusion
to bring the next light of peace & holy
uniting life.

our paradise crumbles. ruins,
we told were gold, & the everlasting city:
a slum. our patience becomes a second flawed

    apocalypse: the sixth horseman. 

 

*

    the during
 

war world three whispered in the distance,

coming in dreams & nightmares & realities
yet no one recognized the reverberations
until the fourth horseman
rode in, hooves quaking the earth,
& with a slight of hand

brought annihilation.
the flash came as a blinding sun,

& time seemed to pause…
ensuing chaos.

we began again, picking up our bodies,
in a desolate & raw form -
you could smell the destruction,
death, terror & newness.

the bellows of smoke brought comfort.
it carried breath that burned -
our lungs were still functioning.
it meant we were alive.

& in living we knew
that death was also flourishing.

the screams were like sirens
wailing in a thick fog -
beware, stay away, don’t come. 

*

    the after

we call ourselves the chosen.
the last standing in a blemished world.
 

aliens, when yesterday we were human.

today, in the dawn of a new generation,

we guise at ourselves as foreign objects.
 

*

 

     the now

 

her words, crisp & tender -
delicate like honey dew
though encased, penetrating
like ammunition: handle your thoughts
with love & anxiety.
she clasps her hands together,
turns & there are never any questions.
 

big ben hovers like a broken finger
pointing to god, half pleading -
seconds have no relevance but the heart
still prays. tick tock tick tock…
i can overhear the melancholy
from the faceless mouth.

*

    the after

bodies melted in a concrete garden
like gnomes - erratically placed.

the structures are wintering trees,
naked in their own revelation.
dark crevices split the walls open.  

eyes liquefied from sockets
like broken yokes. 

 

a silence reaps the situation
trying to discover realization

in stationary deaf & mute faces.
 

*

    the before

 

seven billion people

on production -
never a cut & edit.
no retakes.
going through existence
on autopilot, we never realized:
the conquest, the war
& the famine.
we perceive only black & white,
good versus evil.

*
    the during

 

the way the earth moved beneath -
you could hear the houses
bow down.

than the world was drowned in a gulf of white.
neither hot nor cold, though
it had an understanding of who:

to take, to incinerated, to burn alive,
to leave untouched. 

 

though there was never the answered why…

 

*

    the after

 

the odor of carcasses lingered
& for months skulls split open
like coconuts 

the milk from brains leaked
into faces, thick & slimy.

homes became tombs,
cities developed into cemeteries.
streets converted to crematoriums.

we heaved, & dry-heaved,
& vomited & ate what food
was regurgitated:
waste was a plague,

starvation just a symptom. 

 

human’s became trees, hard & coagulated,
then converted into soppy rot -
they became shock & awe,
then a museum. 

 

*

    the in-between

courage grew in their hearts
as she knelt
& breathed into the nostrils
of timid & frightened.

their backs erected
seeing visions of utopia.
they wanted so much more
then their lost & confusion.

her revelation became the new faith. 

[Tinker]

John, There is stunning imagery in this piece.    I wonder at your use of the words "than" and "then"  in the following 2 lines, are you switching them deliberately? Typos? or am I just not getting it?

On 1/14/2020 at 4:07 AM, misterpoet said:

than the world was drowned in a gulf of white.

 

On 1/14/2020 at 4:07 AM, misterpoet said:

then their lost & confusion.

~~Tink

[poetjohncompton]

2 minutes ago, Tinker said:

John, There is stunning imagery in this piece.    I wonder at your use of the words "than" and "then"  in the following 2 lines, are you switching them deliberately? Typos? or am I just not getting it?

 

~~Tink

I'm pretty sure they are errors. lol. they shall be fixed. I have a lovely editor that's going through the manuscript now

thank you for pointing them out.

and thank you for enjoying and the compliments 

[tonyv]

Apocalyptic visions present in this carefully crafted mixture of current political climate, Biblical prophecy, and sci-fi constructs. All of it is good, but the parts that struck me the most were

On 1/14/2020 at 7:07 AM, misterpoet said:

... we call ourselves the chosen.
the last standing in a blemished world.
 

aliens, when yesterday we were human ...

and 

On 1/14/2020 at 7:07 AM, misterpoet said:

we heaved, & dry-heaved,
& vomited & ate what food
was regurgitated:
waste was a plague,

starvation just a symptom.

By the end, I couldn't help picturing the scene at the end of Planet of the Apes when Charlton Heston arrives to find Lady Liberty in ruins looking like Shelley's Ozymandias on a desolate shore. I loved it.

Tony

[poetjohncompton]

On 1/19/2020 at 11:20 AM, tonyv said:

Apocalyptic visions present in this carefully crafted mixture of current political climate, Biblical prophecy, and sci-fi constructs. All of it is good, but the parts that struck me the most were

and 

By the end, I couldn't help picturing the scene at the end of Planet of the Apes when Charlton Heston arrives to find Lady Liberty in ruins looking like Shelley's Ozymandias on a desolate shore. I loved it.

Tony

late and sorry lol

 

thank you for your lovely comment. much love.

[David W. Parsley]

Agree with Tink, stunning use of diction and image.  Visions of the fallen arrested in place reminded me of encased figures from Pompeii.  

The female redemption figure is by turns inspiring and troubling.  Is she real, or a figment generated as we whistle through and around graveyards we alternately allow or create?

 Thanks (I think!)
-Dave 

P.S.  I shivered at Tony’s visions paired to that ending!