Patmos -
Second Place (long form), 2008 Poetry Contest
John Kuhn
Poetry
Science Fiction
It is still here, of course, this isle
Of John Apostle’s famed exile,
Though olive trees no longer grow
Upon its slopes, nor sea winds blow.
The sea has fled, the land is bare.
My lungs have learned to sip thin air;
My aching mouth, to gravely wait
For fleeting drops to come and sate
This painful thirst. The waste waits, too,
For draft of rain or hint of dew.
Men’s hearts were first to host this drought
When charity was cast without
And self-regard, like creeping sand,
Each ventricle and chamber spanned.
They burned their fuels and drove to town
And daily turned more green to brown
And brown to gray, and gray to black—
Until there was no turning back.
Until each grandchild’s child they’d doomed
To be unborn, or fast consumed.
I look with sadness through these bars
And see a desert dry as Mars.
I see an Earth that teemed with men
Not long ago. But that was then
And now they’ve gone. The lucky left.
But billions died or, worse, bereft
Of hope still live, somehow subsist
And wait for ever-rarer mist,
Or rain, or gaunt and sickly beast
Whose blood is drink and flesh is feast.
Condemned to live, a parasite
Whose host has died, I watch at night
As glinting disks, hope of my race,
Their endless orbits dance through space.
I can’t stop dreaming I’m up there
With hydroponics, filtered air,
And worldwide lotto-winning guests
Who passed their batteries of tests.
I wonder what they ate today.
Alas, my pleasant dreams can’t stay.
Faint screams invade my prison home.
The sun has dropped. Starved hunters roam.
I hold my breath within this cell
And hear an Eden turned to hell.
I huddle, shiver, mutely hide,
And clench the keys I’ve locked inside
With me. A shadow darts about;
I hear a sniffing just without.
No sound escapes my bleeding lips.
I'm living my Apocalypse.
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Copyright 2008, John Kuhn. All rights reserved. John Kuhn is a founding co-editor of Fear and Trembling Magazine. His own writing has appeared in dozens of small press publications in the US and the UK. He placed first in the 2006 and 2007 DKA Magazine (now Mindflights) poetry contest. He placed second in the long form category of the 2008 Mindflights poetry contest. His poem "We Build Our Captors Here" was listed among "The Best of 2007" by Aphelion Magazine. Several of his stories and poems have been selected for inclusion in "Year's Best" anthologies. Kuhn's first book, Texas Eccentrics, published by Atriad Press, is now available at www.amazon.com and from many Texas booksellers.
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