The Show

We have been waiting for you to arrive.

___________________________

Twiddling our thumbs as a period of dormancy sweeps

Across barren land and bellies full of

Cyanide and sweet potatoes.

We have waited long decades for this moment,

The breath between extinction and creation.

Stale. Stuck in our lungs like coal.

Poisoning the vision of the future with slim shadows

And the ugly rattle of scarred breaths.

___________________________

Waiting with liver spots and balding heads.

___________________________

Dreaming that it would never come.

That stupidity would wipe clean the slate of ambition,

Carefully guide you back to the days of berry picking

And pointless walks through ancient forests

Where nothing mattered more than the whispers

Twining in the canopy of the trees,

As out of reach and in demand as the stars.

Instead, the dry earth cracked and our caskets opened

To your yellow, ravenous eyes.

___________________________

Welcome, welcome to the circus.

___________________________

Years ago, when the sun hung lower and engaged

In careless frolicking across fields of flowers and grass,

We emerged like the cicadas from their subterranean snooze,

And began to eat.

Gnashing teeth flashed in the moonlight and the sun

Crept ever higher, further from the touch of our tongues

To keep itself from being swallowed whole,

Regurgitated into ashen snow.

___________________________

It is your show!

___________________________

The star blitzing across the blackened landscape

Is you.

Watch, watch how it trembles.

Stutters across the darkness in a blaze of blue

As it surrenders to the pressure squeezing the life

From its core until at last, at long last,

It bursts into a shimmering display of death

And rains down, heavyhandedly, across the skulls of idiots.

___________________________

It is your show.

___________________________

Show us, then, the spectacular display of flashing lights,

Blasts of heat and sound that will scorch the earth

And incinerate every leaf on these ancient trees.

Show us the rabid rage foaming in your eyes,

Frothing on your lips as you spray the world with bullets.

Show us!

Show us your bold, heroic determination to cleanse

The fields of all life and rip the soul from man.

___________________________

Show us the end.

___________________________

Because it is approaching on your uranium breath,

Twinkling in the blue glow of your radioactive eyes

That are devouring the oceans,

Smoothing a firm hand across the mountains,

And blitzing across the no man’s land of hope

Where we had quietly slept,

Dreaming of handshakes and sunrises.

Your audience has gathered round to witness

The last performance.

___________________________

You are the star, blazing too close to land.

The final kiss.

___________________________

Silver Serpent Books

___________________________

A definite departure from some of my most recent works, this poem calls back to about six years ago in style. There will be a few more like this upcoming.

There is also an upcoming post on my Ko-fi that will explain in less surreal terms what is happening in this poem (and what I mean in certain lines). I'll link it then.