Illustration: “The Meeting” © 2005 by Romeo Esparrago
The accursed time traveler,
Swept up and set down in a vortex,
Finds himself in the future where
Men look like women
And women look like men,
Or perhaps they look
Like neither.
Seeing they have no eyes to see
And no mouth with which to speak,
He panics at the sight of their
Featureless faces and the strange
Fire burning beneath their
Gauzy skin.
Like Cain he seizes a rock
And strikes one while the other
Hides among synthetic trees.
Out of the shattered skull
A chrome globe rolls forth,
Gleaming and cold,
Totally bloodless.
The traveler picks up the sphere
And sees his own reflection
Distorted in a miniature
Horizon of glimmering steel. *
About the Author: Ray Sikes teaches English at Delaware Technical & Community College. His stories, essays, and poems have been published in various print and web publications, and he is the author of “Blues for a Dime Store Guitar”, a novel.
(c) 2005 Ray Sikes rsikes@dtcc.edu
About the Artist: Romeo Esparrago is able to keep up with the normal flow of time by jogging in place.
(c) 2005 Romeo Esparrago http://www.romedome.com
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