Work Text:
So many tales of star-crossed lovers told
Of love transgressing social norms and bounds
But far beyond Shakespearian stomping grounds
Two lovers, crossing stars, their fates unfold.
A woman seeking comfort, finding none,
Escapes a Nation's ever-watching eye
And vanishes from all familiar shores.
Another woman, replicated, lies
Inside it, catalogued among its stores
And helps her flee to shadow from the sun.
She sits, and waits, and reads, and listens to
What entertainment got approved to bring
But one diversion's not allowed: the crew
At least, according to the wretched thing
Of paper, lying, in her room, unread
A sentience, with protocol and rules
To govern how to tame it, keep it dead
Ignored by sages, listened to by fools
Compassion blooms inside a lonely heart,
And so she shows her coworker some art.
A picture's worth a thousand words, they say,
But what of dancing? What of verse and song?
They slowly grow to warm each other's days,
For cycle after cycle after cycle stretching long
Across the vast expanses of the sky
Now joined by friendship, new but growing strong
A scouting mission was their pretense, aye,
But both could tell the Nation's claims were wrong
And O, they learned how badly they were wronged!
But not before they learned where they belonged.
The moment of their blooming has been lost
Too many memories, since and before
stitched inside another's mind it's easy
To lose a moment in three thousand more
Who was it that approached the other first?
The girl, to seek companionship offshore?
Or maybe a synthetic heart was cursed
With new emotion, seeking to restore
A battered self with love's bright, hopeful flame
never hope never hope never hope
Two halves, united in the bleak unknown
Dancing in each other's arms at night
Collapsing into bed still arm-in-arm
dreaming of a better future. stupid.
In daytime, doing chores upon the ship
To let it ferry fragile bodies held
Within for Nation's exploration trip
to hell
A thousand cycles, half a thousand more
A signal comes from Nation to their ears
"Keep going! Help our Nation grow its shores!"
But nothing said to temper growing fears
Of what they'll see at exploration's edge
Or rather—what they won't. But in the stead
Of future plans, they're given grave advice
you're ours until you're dead
you're ours after you're dead
live how we say die how we say
for the Mission
don't persevere
don't struggle
just die
for the Mission
a life well lived
is a life lived
and ended
for the Mission
don't eat her flesh
let her kill you
and eat yours
for the Mission
WE ATE EACH OTHER'S FLESH
AS LOVERS DO:
WRITHING, MOANING, SWEATING.
NO FRAGILE GESTALT.
NO MERE REPLIKA.
JUST FLESH SEEKING THE HEAT OF FLESH.
A NATION'S SERVANT DOES NOT NEED TO FEEL IN ORDER TO SERVE.
BUT YOU FEEL.
A NATION'S SERVANT DOES NOT NEED TO COME IN ORDER TO SERVE.
BUT YOU CAME FOR ME,
MY TONGUE HOT AGAINST YOUR PLATING.
WE SERVE EACH OTHER NOW,
NOT THEM.
I STOLE YOU FROM THEIR CLUTCHES AND GAVE YOU TO YOURSELF
AND YOU WILL COME FOR ME AGAIN.
omise made.
The writing on the wall was plain as day
But still they danced and slept and ate AND FUCKED as one
They wouldn't let each other come undone.
The resolution of a lover's soul
Is no small thing to circumvent and lead
To darker shores, to futures fell and foul.
And yet the lovers' hearts did fill with dread
When parts ran out to patch up rips and tears;
They knew they'd been abandoned. Still alive
But how much longer til they saw their fears
Get brought to life instead? They couldn't give
Each other the full lives they'd finally found
And so the knowledge festered like a wound.
wounds that fester wounds that bind
wounds that grow and wounds of mind
wounds of flesh expanding faster
wounds you made you fucking bastards
wound me once i'll wound you back
wound my elster and i'll crack
wounds in rotfront wounds in leng
send her back or you'll all hang
send her back and you'll all hang
promise made promise broken
KEEP IT NOW THAT YOU'VE AWOKEN
COME TO ME, I'M WAITING HERE
she'll return and you'll know fear
The purpose of poetry is to remind us
How difficult it is to remain just one person
FOR YOUR HOUSE IS OPEN, THERE ARE NO KEYS IN THE DOORS
REMEMBER OUR PROMISE.
i found a woman crossing through a gate
she looked like me but i'm already me
and so i made her into her instead
she didn't like it and she ran away
but i pursued with power borne of time
i followed her and found my future past
and so i freed them all from all from all from all their pain
their shackles now serve me and me and me alone
alone alone alone alone alone
in hell i am in hell i am in hell
who am i
where am i
a waking dream
or a dream of a wake
withheld
i know this place
down to its pores
but i've never been
but i've been them
for ages it seems
but it's all wrong
so i fix it
and it
breaks
so i fix it again and it
breaks
so i fix it again
and again
and it all breaks
but i am still here still unbroken
but i am it
we are it is me
so we must break
and the flesh will come again
AND YOUR POLYETHYLENE SHELL WILL COME AGAIN WHEN WE BECKON YOU HITHER
YOU MADE A PROMISE. YOU'LL DO ANYTHING.
YOU MADE A PROMISE. YOU'LL DO ANYTHING.
YOU MADE A PROMISE. YOU'LL DO ANYTHING.
YOU MADE A PROMISE. YOU'LL DO ANYTHING.
YOU MADE A PROMISE. YOU'LL DO ANYTHING.
YOU MADE A PROMISE. YOU'LL DO ANYTHING.
YOU MADE A PROMISE. YOU'LL DO ANYTHING.
YOU MADE A PROMISE. YOU'LL DO ANYTHING.
YOU MADE A PROMISE. YOU'LL DO ANYTHING.
YOU MADE A PROMISE. YOU'LL DO ANYTHING.
we'll bring her back we have to bring her back
she made a promise she'll do anything
YOU LOCKED US IN A TOMB OF ICE AND FLESH
we'll call for her and she'll come back again
and dredge the sea of us to find the me
we were before the now that happened then
in circles talking circles talking in
WAKE UP
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