LAST LIGHT
Janet Phelan
Still beating, the hearts were torn from the chest
and eaten
while their bodies were thrown from the temple steps
for the beasts to consume.
*******
The reasons were many:
the neighbouring peoples were bellicose
and the gods must be appeased
These were the simplest explanations, although not
the most honest. The stories that came down to the elect
were clear—only by sacrifice would the universe
maintain its coordinates. Everything eats something
and this dimension demands to be fed.
*******
The rainfall stopped. The corn blackened in the fields
The conquerors came
and in revulsion, killed the killers. The practices continued on
with different protocols
under the mantle of the new order.
*******
And the rainfall stopped. And the tsunamis began.
And the earth began to move, first shifting her weight
from side to side, then with larger and more violent distress
*******
And no one saw the upheaval in other dimensions
The giant form of a sorrowful God crashing to his knees
as the lights went out in the sky
and galaxies rippled forth from the point of impact
his voice echoing through the spheres (though not ours)
No...No...No
*******
The photograph of you in the yellowing album
Looking up with surprise as the photographer (who loved you)
clicked
and somehow caught your soul
smiling with the incandescent joy
of one who has arrived
to find things just as she had dreamed of
your hands just so on the hips
which would give birth to the one
*******
who would rise up and kill her
*******
how could she know
*******
I'm ready to lay down my pen
Maybe in some future time
travelers will take heed
of the devastation that followed
the weapons lying in the empty field
gleaming in the sun
from the smallest projectile
to the silos buried deep underground
Maybe they will take note
that the food, the water, the herbs
were poisoned and fouled
*******
and that no one survived
the final sacrifice
*******
In the evening
as the light fails
I can almost see her now
she gets more substantial every day
hovering in my doorway
smiling and radiant
bits of star stuff caught in her hair
*******
beckoning me home
********************************
Janet C. Phelan [email protected]
August 28, 2011