pmcolt.bsky.social
@pmcolt.bsky.social
When the devil whispers in her ear… she whispers sweet nothings back, until her sultry suggestions turn his face red.
No stranger to scandal -- the stranger the better, she says. Midnight is her finest hour, and she has no time for unoriginal #sin.
#vss365 We three set sail in a boat one night
Jimmy and Kimmy and me
Traveled the river of moonglade light
Out to the crystal sea
Beached on an #island with sand so white
Where no other eyes might see
Jimmy and Kimmy came home all right
None know what became of me
#vss365 With meticulous care we hoist a #sail no hurricane will ever touch.
Delicate, thinner than thin, it catches the starlight.
Our ship sets forth through the infinite black ocean, riding on a sunbeam.
Discovering where day meets night. Nothingness and everything.
#vss365 The alien death beam hit with the force of a #hurricane.
My neighbor and I surveyed the downed trees.
"Cat three?" I asked.
"Pfft. Not even," said Jimmy. "I'll grab my chainsaw."
"Me too. Why d'you s'pose they hit Florida?"
#vss365 There were whispers that he harbored feelings for her.
He cringed every time at the accusation. Those feelings forcibly entered. Took up residence. Threatened to reveal themselves if he made even one wrong move.
His heart was not harbor, but hostage.
#vss365 #harbour We three ended up out at a desert campsite for different reasons.
Watkins was a true believer.
Dupré saw dollar signs in shady documentaries.
And for me, it was the #lure of the unknown.
As the ring of lights hovered in the night sky above, we all had second thoughts.
#vss365 The sun setting over the mountain
Moved also over waters
In which the first life swam.
The mountain beneath me
Holds rock that was ancient
When first life walked on land
Why do I, such a young small thing,
Feel older than the #mountain
And tired as the setting sun?
#vss365 Happiness lives
Not only in blotchy little trees on the finished canvas
But the palette splotched in alizarin, sienna, ochre
The spattered wooden easel on the dropcloth
And the glass of brushes, its water a #cloud of color
#vss365 Everyone called it the year Earth went dark. But it was still there, bright and blue in the dusky red sky.
What went dark were our hopes and dreams. We were forced to scrounge, refurb, recycle to survive.
Months later, one final cargo ship arrived.
Our #bequest.
#vss365 "If her love is a punishment, grant me #reprieve."
Yet Monday after Monday after Monday she'd talk
As I clung to every sentence.
Then in solitary I'd scratch the days on the wall
And circle my every hope
But every day she held me with her eyes.
Never with her arms.
#vss365 Alone at the end of another sol
In the dome watching the sun set over red mountains
Surrounded by lush green plants of home
The calm steady whirrr of the machinery
That's life on Mars
We purify the air
We purify the water
But most importantly, we #purify our hearts
#vss365 "Nothing created nor destroyed. Only changed."
He lived for years undercover in the cult. Reported on oaths, members… but omitted the delta tattoo on his arm.
Many now wonder why he would #renounce his life's work. But he knows nothing is destroyed.
Only changed.
#vss365 I assembled friendship in a factory
From machined parts
Quality control
Stamped, sealed, approved.
But she grew it through soft warm seasons
And bitter cold winters
I watched her #nurture it through hard times
Cultivate that rare beautiful blossom
And hand it to me.
#vss365 In silhouette against the rising moon I see the stark towers and crenellations of Castle Highfall. I reckon it half a league distant.
Cloak cinched tight by my belt, sword tucked fast within, I pick up my pace.
By morning that usurper will #reckon with me.
#vss365 She used to hunger for his mere presence
The scent of his cologne
And the sound of her name on his lips
The touch of his hands
And the feel of his—
But ever since she was bitten by that shambling vagrant
She feels a #hunger for something else...
#vss365 We were two smart kids, in our own estimation. Living on #passion and pizza and '90s pizzazz in a studio apartment. Running towards a headlong collision to change the world.
My phone notified me of her birthday the other day.
The world changed… but not because of me.
#vss365 From the captain's chair I see shuttles bringing our passengers. Humans. Dogs. Cats. Dolphins. Robots. AGIs. Countless species ready to #embark on our voyage to the stars.
A journalist asks "do you think we'll learn whether we're alone?"
I smile. "We never have been."
#vss365 Realization struck like lightning.
In silence she shut the bedroom door again. Her #stormy thoughts swept through grey matter skies.
She shut her hazel eyes.
Thunder rumbled.
Soon skies would be blue.
#vss365 Even from orbit we could see glowing cracks in the planet's crust: wounds from a #conflict dating from before humans had mastered fire.
"It was once called the Fermi Paradox," our xenologist said. "Who'd've guessed humans are the least violent species in the galaxy?"
#vss365 "One touch of the wist-stone," said the wizard, "shall lay bare your heart's longing."
I studied the blue gem: a #marvel. In its many facets I saw infinite versions of myself. I tapped it.
"Now you understand?"
I shook my head.
"Such is its nature," said the wizard.
#vss365 Four men walked into a bar. The only joke was their clothes: bright primary colors.
"We come to #explore…" proclaimed one.
"Shush! The game's on!"
"To seek out new life…" he continued.
"Oh, bored with the missus?"
"To boldly go—"
My bouncers showed them the door.
#vss365 When the days are dark and short, and hope no longer can #sustain…
I feel her warm embrace as she kisses away my tears.
Hear her whisper that through the long winter and seasons yet to come, she'll be with me.
"I'll be here with you, too—"
I wake with a sob.
#vss365 "Commence work," the AI collar orders. I sit up straight and start my day.
"Coffee first," mutters Bob, one cube over.
I stop. Tap my collar. "Cube 332 lacks team spirit."
"Thank you for reporting."
I smile a little.
"Resume work or electric shock will #commence."
#vss365 Waking to September winds, a blink of confusion.
For is not red the color of love?
But yellow the sign of caution?
And orange, the fiery warmth of friendship?
If the breeze would but carry me as a kite
Over mountain and desert,
To wrap you in a tail of #autumnal color.
#vss365 After the Monday morning broken coffee maker
The heat of a summer not quite broken into fall
Angry emails, question emails, pointless emails
Meetings that could have been emails
He cranks the radio for the long commute
And points his car square into the #sanguine sunset
#vss365 As the distinguished MIT alumni gathered in the shadow of the Great Dome, there was a susurrus from the crowd.
"Pirate Certificate" once seemed an #esoteric college novelty, yet the Dean was serious.
"We need your minds and hands." Behind him towered the rocket ships.
#vss365 "As a girl I adored Cary Grant."
"I grew up on Looney Tunes."
She waltzed. Backwards… in high heels. When I tripped she tittered lightly. I chortled like Elmer Fudd.
She complimented me in three-dollar words.
And I reciprocated with all the #eloquence of Porky Pig.
#vss365 I rinsed my feet. Donned robes of white linen, cinched with a cloth belt. Entered the cave.
I found the Oracle seated on the high stone chair.
"Approach and ask one question."
In my #naïveté I asked what my crush thinks of me.
And the Oracle replied…
"She doesn't."
#vss365 An old man in my dream handed me the Book of My Life.
I thumbed through chapter titles to find a #mélange of comedy, heartbreak, true love, truer loss.
But the text was an incomprehensible blur.
I woke before I could ask him… Was it the dream? Or just life?
#vss365 Her friends never believed her, but over the years she had developed an #intuition, an insight to see beneath the surface to what lay within.
Some were sweet, others solid, and a few downright nutty. But she knew and loved every chocolate in the box.
#vss365 On some nights the mind like a calm lake.
Black reflecting black. Perfect starry mirror.
Other nights memories surface like ripples.
Up down. Up down.
I dance along the silvery #moonglade.
Islands of light drift, meet, part.
Illusory continuity.
#vss365 In August they chanced to meet in a hotel café in Aleppo. She was heading home from an archaeological dig in the east. He was bound for an expedition south.
The night was torrid, but his heart was a cuneiform tablet, and hers a #palimpsest with each name scraped clean.
#vss365 BrainSync turned my memory photographic and my web searches into innate knowledge.
EZHands play the keyboard with the #adroit touch of a concert pianist.
iHeart guarantees me two billion beats.
I once feared new technologies would change me.
Trouble is… they didn't.
#vss365 Our defenses folded in minutes. Alien particle beams took out satellites, F-35s, and gadgetry electronic.
We persisted. Practiced riflery. Learned to #reconnoiter by eye. Nav by paper map. Fight from below.
World War 3 wasn't fought with sticks and stones, but close.
#vss365 You said we had a destiny. That line shouldn't have worked, but the wine and the music…
My last glimpse was your #silhouette in the window: a hole in space. You vanished.
If you're out there…
She's three. She's beautiful.
Every night I tell her she has a destiny.
#vss365 She would never love me.
Yet at last I produced the #elixir of love! Soon she too would feel the long-unrequited ache!
And then…?
Abandon the life she had built? Give up her home, her partner? For the sake of my fantasy?
I smashed the vial.
She would never love me.
#vss365 We, the Fae of the Knot, slip among the sleeping houses, whispering into ears many sweet thoughts from lands north of Hiraeth and west of Wist.
That's so touching. You bring people dreams of possibilities to #console them.
(She beats her gossamer wings.) Console?
#vss365 When the Visitors arrived in gleaming silver starships, they rescued us from our own rampaging rogue AIs.
Humanity surveyed a devastated Earth. "How did you escape such a fate?"
«Our creations, whether #empathetic or psychopathic, are a reflection of our own souls.»
#vss365 