Wasteland Apocrypha
A cleave collaboration with Renae Tobias, Isabella Rathbone Greene, and Heath Houston
Barren waste at zero ground, no soul seen
Aghast, I look upon the steaming plane
My ancient handgun steady in my grip.
If only forward brought me closer to
Where Love doth stride, a ruthless fire-footed thing
, alas the trigger gently squeezed fires true.
That frame which housed too many souls. Reduced
To blacken bone in wash of flaming wing:
I am the one they call the Vault Dweller.
To vapor; bound in a reliquary
There, be neither shelter nor shield from pain.
In this harsh wasteland, I am left to roam
A world owned of reek and bleak destruction
Seared flowers wither in its burning mane.
I once saw pictures of a world still fresh
Agony more haunting than this desert.
I turn my streaming face away, and cling
To hope one day this waste will bloom again
Steeled against this ashen past and blinded
To lesser thing and stop my ears lest hear it sing
Again the rhythmic pulse of rifle fire
Shrill cry of ricochet and rain of stone
Its ringing gimlet cry to blight the sane
With dangled daydreams set on sunlit green
A foil to desolation swiftly bound
And set us trembling at its seeming rage
To manifest in radiation storms
Of blistering decay on paling flesh
Or, ripping chin to stern in bleeding rite
, the green-skinned mutants keep our hopes at bay.
Served for feast on our enemies table
It eats the flinching heart and strews but jumbled cage
Til naught remains but memory and bone
Broken kingdoms, broken kings: an altar
Of ribs to rattle in its wrenching flight
Against the cold steel of the Brotherhood.
Summons power that once was aptly bound
And so consumes the wailing babe and blinded sage.
, a bright and shining star with darkened core.
Brightness, magic: singular implosion
Till naught be left but ash and wholly joyous light.
Did the children of Atom speak true?
This is a double cleave written in iambic pentameter X 3
- Renae Tobias wrote the first part (in italic text).
- The middle is ‘Sonnet V’ by Isabelle Rathbone Greene, c. 1894 (in bold text).
- The caboose is written by Heath Houston (in regular text).
This piece is part of the Cleave Chain collaboration on Chalkboard. To continue the cleave chain, copy the first or last part of the cleave from the original posts here.
Renae Tobias’ poem:
Base poem: Sonnet V ~ Isabelle Rathbone Greene, c. 1894~
Heath Houston’s poem:
