Three Enigmatic Epitaphs
(1) The Unbearable Lightness of Non-Being
The doctrinal schism within the European caliphate was firming along a north-south divide, with the more hard-line Mediterranean mosques denouncing in particular the celestial elevator project, ferrying dearly-departed souls through the newly-opened stratosphere portal, across the Elysian Fields into the paradise of denominational choice. I was there, pondering the metaphysical aspects uniting the DNA double-helix and the Wheel of Karma when the first of the cobalt-nukes took out Berlin, and the elevator was instantly overwhelmed by the mass discorporate influx, forcing me down unfamiliar radiant pathways, into the Hieronymus Bosch vision of Hades, where demons gnaw my entrails as rapidly as they grow back – for eternity. The millennia, I suppose, will eventually pass…
(2) The Golden Pathway to a Metaphysical Paradise
The beatific planetoid was recognized from deep-probe photography by the play of comets weaving within the light-bursts of its angelic hair, and by the divine conversation of sub-atomic particles caught up in the tides of solar wind through the Oort Cloud. Future-history simulations indicate that the unbearable brightness of the celestial dialogue as it migrates inwards into the Sun will provoke a dark economy of petty-theft, dealing retinal renewal within a mass discorporate disunity…
(3) On the Unbearable Brightness of the Golden Pathway
When she dreams, she dreams the world’s end. The freezing heat-death of the universe where shivering galaxies collapse into blizzards of ice, and cities of ants throw shadows on tideless oceans of methane beneath aubergine volcanic skies. When she dreams, she dreams the world’s beginning in asteroid collisions where diamond-storms dissolve in the soft breath of trilobites. When she dreams, she dreams of alternate realities, where the passion of a different lover is awaiting her on every plane of existence, but none of them wear my face. When she laughs at my hurt, I see comets burn in the light-bursts of her hair…
Andrew Darlington’s work has appeared in various magazines, websites, anthologies, and books. He’s worked as a “Stand-Up Poet” on the Alternative Cabaret Circuit and has interviewed a variety of people from various fields for a variety of publications. His latest poetry collection is titled The Poet’s Deliberation on the State of the Nation (Penniless Press), while his new fiction collection, A Saucerful Of Secrets, is now available from Parallel Universe Publications. For additional information, visit: www.andrewdarlington.blogspot.com.