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Timewave Zero – Part II
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Photographs by Rebecca Lu Kiernan
By Rebecca Lu Kiernan
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The
Melting Pot
Dare you ring the tungsten bell and blink away
To the lost world's spark in
the plum-grey sky.
Dare you melt the tantalum we mined on Mars.
Into a necklace in the shape of a heartleaf vine.
What fuel fed the flame to 5463?
I speak fahrenheit, you say celsius.
What alien conversion will marry us?
Our imposturous spy coats are useless.
What amaranth and wolf-kiss orchids have you brought
To wilt my novice faith at the
melting pot?
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The Sixth Extinction
A split second
Or eons
After the Sixth Extinction,
The auroral green-edged pinks
And lava-esque tangerines
Took away
What I thought of as my breath,
Dismantled
What I thought of as the sky.
(Has the world exploded, or have I?)
I could not seperate
What I thought of as my eyes
From the fuschia rainscape.
No mother, no father,
No faithful dog.
(Don't the dead come greeting?)
I searched for you.
You died in my arms,
Kept me calm.
"Look for me on the other side."
I do not think I am going
Anywhere.
I find ways to pass
What is not even time.
Wearing your robe until you came home,
Finding the shoebox
Of every card, note
And grocery list
I ever gave you,
The kiss by Willow Lake
That was neither chaos, nor fate,
But three seconds' proof of God.
(You must be alone somewhere too.)
Perhaps what you think of as your mind
Is also pushing play and
rewind.
When all is said and done
Starless in the memory
Of one's home constellation,
What survives?
Psychologists say memory
Is just a story
We keep changing to ourselves
You kissed me and we laughed.
Perhaps it was just a gallery lithograph
That once I saw
Alone,
Lovers parting at a train
That runs into being strangers again.
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Postcard
Darkness swallows. Cannibals drum.
Stars forgive. Angels hum.
Lilies wilt against the lie.
Wolf thinks he can scratch the sky.
Clawmarks vandalize the moon.
Don't miss you, won't be home soon.
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Beyond This Equation
I keep my cannibalistic rituals
And hostile artifacts from the
alien.
The alien keeps unimaginable technology,
Inevitable events from me.
Our shared secret is a sentient being.
Darling, five secrets if you are counting.
A thousand featherweight light years away,
Sleek fingers through the labyrinth of my mind
Running every possible equation.
Sublime intelligence will not find
The solution.
I wear withered, blue-leafed vines from your past,
A criminal smile from your treacherous future.
A ghost dilates the ship's door.
Even time is no secret anymore.
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