Ascending
Mike Allen
5 January 2009
For Tom Disch
The escalator, rolling ever down,
has reached an end at last and here you lie
as lonely as a sailor left to drown—
like your trapped hero, we cannot know why.
The roaches march in lockstep to commands
like convicts programmed for unwelcome war,
a war that's lost though no one understands
but you, who tried to warn us once before
what lies in wait for red-faced arrogance.
"We are all cripples"—you, alone, divine,
a smirking Momus whose knife-twirling prance
drew blood to fill our cups of dream-dark wine.
Your Resurrection surely won't take long:
your demon words borne high on wings of song.
Copyright © 2009 Mike Allen
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For a blog post explaining the references in this poem, please see here.
Mike Allen lives in Roanoke, Va. with his wife Anita, a demonic cat, and a comical dog. Mike's fiction can be found in Weird Tales, his poetry in Nebula Awards Showcase 2008 and Nebula Awards Showcase 2009. Norilana Books has brought out a new poetry collection, The Journey to Kailash, and a new anthology of short stories, Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness, which Publishers Weekly praises for its "strong and delicious taste of weird." He's currently at work assembling the sequel, of course named Clockwork Phoenix 2. Last month he gave a presentation about "The Poetry of Science Fiction" at the Library of Congress. More of Mike's work is available in the Strange Horizons archive. You can view Mike's website at www.descentintolight.com, and he can be reached by email at mythicdelirium@gmail.com.
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