Red lights, dark corners, thrashing drum and bass.
Antis leans against the bar. As she tosses back
a bright red drink, the pale flash of her throat
broadcasts deceptive vulnerability.
Later, a mirrored ceiling will reflect a brutal scene –
she’ll walk away, unscathed and satisfied.
In a world of manufactured lust,
she alone acts on desire.
When she looks out of her window, all she sees is sea.
Inside the ship’s hallways, all she hears, KLTV – seeds of mind control
that fall on fallow ground.
After the war, they left the land. Oil and water,
an uneasy truce.
Sometimes a battle to the death is better than a rose.
The soldier who can’t be killed will win her battered heart,
and old blood spilled ignite new lust –
the rumblings of war begin again.
Bright lights, loud shots and sinking ships.
Antis takes her soldier’s hand. They watch the past
become submerged, adrift on the wreckage of the old world.
They will find others like them and new land --
and learn the ark of man is not a warship, but a womb.
- Tai Carmen