A Blue World- Katie Kaiser
they say earth is the blue planet
a blue world.
the oceans are blue;
they are also gray, green, black.
sailing on the ocean
the sky is gray, the ocean its mirror.
never bluer than
a snowy day
at dusk
in early february.
a lonely, peaceful blue.
snow globes are too bright.
snowflakes don’t look like glitter
they can be beautiful
without sparkle.
when i was in third grade,
i made a snow globe.
super glued the figurine to the lid,
mixed water with glycerine,
added the glitter,
carried it to school,
and
shattered it on the pavement.
it couldn’t be salvaged.
i cut my finger on a shard of glass.
on a snowy day in early february
the earth is bluer than ever
but only at dusk
before it succumbs to darkness
because the moon cannot penetrate the clouds
and the stars are smothered by glitter.
The Tales of Space Cemetery
2022
By James Sandler :
By James Sandler :
“The Bozel”:
The first being,
The dawn of life,
The beginning of creation,
And the first killer.
14 billion years ago was it created,
That which is a god,
To create and birth and prosper,
Can extinguish and kill and eliminate.
The Bozel is what it’s called,
A parent to all,
The protector of very few,
And a harbinger of destruction to the rest of the universe.
“Ancient Humanity”:
What our first race is,
What they call “master,”
What we call “ancestors,”
Ruled the universe.
80 million years ago did they live,
For a million years they expanded,
A millennia it took to kill us.
One body was what brought us to extinction.
Humans is what they were,
With great amounts of pleasure,
With many number of planets,
With infinite expanse of perpetual technology.
Or so they thought.
Despite the quintillion humans,
Regardless of the advanced spaceships,
Even with the rigid military,
They were still defeated.
What wiped them out is what is killing you;
What burnt their planets, will burn yours;
What brought your ancestors to extinction will do so to you;
And only the will to survive shall save your race again.
“The Prophecy of Lao”:
At the height of our power,
It has slayed us,
But it has not killed us all so
It will even get us a second time.
In chaos and disarray shall we be,
Without the ships to assist,
At a fraction of our numbers,
Yet we will not submit a third time.
Through our determination will we live:
Our strength shall deny it the satisfaction of our death,
The drive to survive will keep us alive,
And the fight for a better future will keep us breathing.
When the cursed beings have the backings of a billion galaxies,
As it tries to eliminate us a third time,
Only then will it fall
In our blaze of fury.
In one final swoop shall the Bozel be brought to its knees as the ferocity of all those it has made extinct comes upon it.
May the anger and cries of the races it has killed be felt.
May they strengthen the army that will approach after you.
May that be the last day of its life.
Humania eternia
“The Unluh Otar Hasara”:
Multiple races unified,
Aliens that do their part,
A society with one purpose,
A Facist Authoritarian Totalitarian Extremist Religious Dictatorship at heart.
5 millennia ago did they begin,
For 4,400 years they reigned,
In one fell assault were they defeated,
And for 600 years they ran.
10 species dominated the UOH,
Each with their plans and places.
1 for governance,
And the corruption of its empire.
2 for the labor,
And as slaves of all types for some races’ pleasures.
3 for technology,
To appropriate the race that came before.
4 for battles,
To expand the territory of the Unluh Otar Hasara.
And 1 race to lead them all,
To lead them to salvation.
With great spaceships of blue and red and gold,
With a military never beaten,
With great cities in space and land,
With lush planets for peace.
With a war machine meant to subjugate,
With a government neither caring nor humane,
With slavery, violence, and extremism,
With the power to extinguish and unmake.
To spread the word of the Master Race
Is their goal as a society.
To enlighten the universe with great technology
Is what would’ve happened.
But all doesn’t go according to plan,
For it got them.
The 11 races must fight for their survival,
Like their master race before them.
And they will be lead by the one chosen,
One they would have brought destruction upon,
One that would forgive the Unluh, if it meant survival.
They are called the Yenobek, but are by another title.
“The Yenobek”:
20 millenia ago
Was the first tablet.
It says two words:
“Humania Eternia.”
For 20 millenia,
Tribes were formed;
Thousands rose,
And thousands more fell.
No city states,
No empires,
No nations,
No peace.
For those thousands of years,
There was only war,
Constant times of borders shifting,
And pillaging and murder.
In the end,
500 tribes remained.
Few were remembered,
And the other thousands forgotten.
By the time of the invasion,
Those that call themselves the UOH
Delivered to all the tribes one reason for extinction:
“You all are birthed from demons, and we are the angels.”
The megalopolises,
The veterans from warring,
The advanced technology,
All was not enough.
The Yenobek’s fleet did nothing,
Their prayers were not answered,
The surrenders were met with massacres,
But the guns in the hands of everyone willing to fight succeeded.
25 years in,
12 billion have died,
10 billion remain,
And half of their world burnt.
But two things will stop the genocide,
Both world-shattering.
“The Infinite Fleet”:
In the end,
A trillion died,
A spiral arm’s length of an empire
Reduced down to a million ships.
From the Outer Arm they came,
This fleet of many,
Past the Pursues arm,
And many habitable worlds.
For 650 years they ran.
The 10 races fled,
Escaping the undead,
While one enacted their plan.
As they escaped,
The enemy caught on.
Whatever planets they found were pillaged;
Whoever was left behind was murdered.
And thus,
100,000 ships remained.
The population decreased exponentially,
And insanity was here to stay.
But when the chosen took up the mantle,
As their ancestors had done before,
The Yenobek steered them to hope.
Hope, as the chosen saw it, is called Earth.
“The Sacrifice”:
100 years the Unluh gained ground,
Because the Bozel must have focused;
One race that started it all
Will also be the one to end it.
The race for governance:
Those who call themselves the Propok,
They were the ones to lead the Unluh.
Their sacrifice gave the other races time.
For 5,000 years,
The Unluh committed many genocides,
Not different from the Bozel,
And the Propek did all this.
Every Man,
Every Woman,
Every Child,
Every Elderly.
All were gathered,
In armies of billions;
All held a weapon.
In the ships they were not allowed.
To buy time;
That was the goal,
Simple in orders,
Hard on the battlefield.
No match were they
For this enemy that is undead,
The foe that is one,
This one who turns parent against child.
But their tenacity was hardened,
Until it took many years to kill them,
And the need to repay was futile,
So in the end the deed was fulfilled.
The Propek killed many,
They governed as many,
They died as many,
And their goal was achieved with many.
Olympe
The dust hangs in the air
Clinging to the last beam of light
How it hopes that every hour is
Time to shine, time to fight
She stirs her pale green beverage
Waiting, and waiting, and waiting
Nervously anticipating the reconciliation
Expecting nothing but placating
The light flickers above – yellow
Shades of lily-liver and wimp
Yet amber, flaxen, and bold
When would she finally become Olympe?
All those years that she dreamed
Of freedom and ties to be cut
This black hole would swallow her
Yet she couldn’t resist this mutt
The dark wood was sharp, splintered
It pierced her skin, pain then ache
Her heart stung, deeper than her skin
She knew she had made a mistake
The mock-velvet groaned as she stood
There was no evidence she was there
Besides the crisp green Hamiltons
She would never again be ensnared.
— Joyce Gong, 2022