statistics – A Piece, of the Sky

look up, to space
from the east to the west, is your kingdom
We are already living in the future
what are the gods, but monsters?
a comfortable lie
now the light is off
I will not be your hero
Pocky and Band-Aids
it is the overcompensation

inverted, twin timelines
sweat the band-aids off
fiery, pink sun
the long tail of the curve
what is the color of love
I have to let you go
jumped into the future
people knew what they had felt
from the Middle Ages to the last Ice Age

watching the light change, in the sky
listening to cars go by, at night
go anywhere and still stay the same
don’t want to be anyone’s political hero
it’s important to feel what we’re feeling
those who have been crushed by love
rolled the ring down the drain
the struggle to determine one’s destiny
Constantinople, Alexandria, and Venice

someone who wishes to be brave
billions of people, billions of possibilities
“setting men free, from other men”
saw the straits of the Dardanelles
forever now, I have the truth
I don’t want to be your hero
the social contract, of a free world
someone who wants to be your future
love, thrown down the drain

the person who loses the love triangle
sweaty Band-Aid
video games killed the radio star
and in a thunderclap, Troy was lost

Please do not repost without my permission, but you can support my poetry here! Originally written 7/18/20. Copyright, All Rights Reserved. All art, not from the author, belongs to the original artists. This particular work is from Dante’s Paradiso.

Alli lay in the multipurpose pool, at the gym, in a T-shirt and shorts. A game of water polo raged nearby, but not close enough to tussle the water where she was floating.

The water was warm, and at just the right salinity. She closed her eyes and let the water fill her ears. Buoyant, Alli could use this pool of ions, a sea of electrons, as an extender, an antenna for her signal. Tethered to that terrestrial room, Alli could unspool her link to this side, and spelunk further and further out, into the in-between, to Atev.

She stood on a rocky outcrop, overlooking the beach. The crashing of waves greeted her ears. Alli was here in Atev, on an island that exceeded Keo’s description of Naxos, Greece, in beauty.

Aro waved from the top of the hillside. A small table, covered in a white tablecloth, whipping in the breeze, stood next to a castle. Aro was dressed for summer, in a white suit and blue ascot, held by a golden pin. She held a cigar in one hand, and a bottle of Les Hauts de Smith sat on the table, waiting for them.

Alli, now in a navy-blue cashmere sweater and khakis, hiked up the hill, toward Aro. As she took a seat, a waiter poured a glass of the red wine for each of them.

“So, I hear you are going to be the next Sky Avatar,” Aro said, letting out a plume of smoke.

“Where did you hear that?” Alli blanched, pulling herself closer to the table.

Aro sighed and re-crossed her legs, “I hear many things in the capital.”

Alli shook her head, “I’ve never known how to take any of it.”

“Come on now,” Aro chided, leaning forward, “You’re not going to reject this opportunity, are you?”

Alli looked around, nervous, “No of course not, but do you think I am ready for it? It’s like being told, tomorrow, you are going to be an ambassador.”

Clouds were floating by, further out to sea. The butt of Aro’s cigar burned bright, a whole tobacco leaf curling into ash, “I think you’re ready for it. It’s not natural to like beginnings or endings.”

The waiter brought them two plates of salmon and sorrel. The breakers of the other land pounded the shore and receded out to the horizon.