GUEST POST, WHAT KIND OF MIRROR by Ron Heckert

What kind of mirror is this anyway?

And another day became another day.

I am writing this for posterity, to look back on in future times, better times hopefully, but worse isn’t wholly unlikely.

This space ship to Mars just keeps on travelling. 

There is an end to this journey, eventually, but whatever. 

On this day here I was/am/be, bored and uneasy, in my little spacetime travelling pod.

I drink a hard seltzer or two. 

I smoke a bit of pot.

I find myself at this daily; a drink, or two, or three; a hit, or two, or four. 

I play video games in VR. 

I play guitar. 

I talk to my co-inhabitants. 

I rotate, from station to station every half hour or so.

I look at awful facebook videos of awful people being awful.

What kind of a mirror is this, anyway?

I walk in circles.

I talk in half thoughts.

I smoke cigarettes and I KNOW it’s gross and may give me cancer.

I think boring thoughts in a stream.

I pause to pee in a stream.

The stream is not a brook, but it babbles as much as my prostate will allow.

My mind babbles too, constantly.

What kind of mirror is this, anyway?

It’s all I got.

This fool was alive, once.

from media.vam.ac.uk

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE COMFORT ZONE

MILKMAID CHIC

fighting with the night

for my allocated blackout

when 

in the open window 

comes -

shes got no knickers at all

a voice says

street side

&

drunk loud

shes on welfare

no knickers at all

move on a way

&

the reply came

hash slow -

milkmaid chic innit

like a 

government anthropologist

i file it 

for my morning report

then fight the night

for my allocated blackout

from tywkiwbdi.blogspot.com

DOES ANYONE STILL SAY TANNOY ?

in

one

of

them shops

whats full

of

a

bit

of everyfreakingthing

comes over the tannoy -

member of staff

to

arse & crafts

say it twice

think only

i hear

from geography.org.uk

TOTAL RECALL

tv in shop

demos on a loop

tv in drs

booze 

points

advice

tv in opticians

daytime quiz show

tv in train station

silent rolling news

tv over cinema doors

huge movie trails

feel like im in total recall

feel like im riding a mars train

like

when i ride the

heathrow express

a spy

always

in my pocket

from denofgeek.com

PICASA MADRIGALS, SPIDERS & HOVERFLY

TWO DOORS DOWN

the ambulance came
for
the
man
two doors down

one of those ambulances
thats just a car
with lights and yellow on

and the blues were flashing
and i heard them coming
but once out the car
they seemed to be
in
no
rush
at all

the man two doors down
got prostate cancer
got bone cancer

but
hes
only
taken
away
for an infected knee

cos hes tough as a dozen old boots

and theyll let him out 
when he can walk again
and i hope to see him again
going for his paper 8 AM

~

i see his son in the street

he now lives where 
they filmed heartbeat
he says

i been 24 yrs in the army
he says
maybe 4 or 5 times

n ireland
FN FALs at dawn
under end terrace murals
jammed inside the empires folly

then hazmat training
bomb disposal

demobbed in yorkshire
straight back in 
as an instructor

abroad again
as
an
independent contractor 

but can he talk
his mum and dad
into
accepting
a
twice daily council care plan ?

can he bunnies 

theyre from 1928
might as well be mars

or the hebrides

n ireland from pinterest

FICTION POP 6 PEACE AND BAD TIMING

there is peace on earth
basically achieved thru music
( yes i know ! )

all the nations launch their nukes into space
obviously no one needs them anymore
even israel
( yes i know ! )

for five months the sky is like fireworks
all other weapons are melted down too
everyone builds ambulances with the iron
everyone builds windfarms with the steel

almost by osmosis everyone is sheltered and fed
everyone has water

nasa collects all the gunpowder
nasa collects all the grenades
nasa announces a bulletship to mars
nasa announces mars to be a waystation
to united peaceful and awesome exploration

due to cosmic coincidence
three alien races are approaching

one is the last of its kind
frieghting galactic knowledge
in a container tanker of answers

one is a young pioneer
best described as a multideminsional escapee
in a kind of pimped space hotrod

they are quickly destroyed
in our careless riot of peace
( yes i know ! )

the third alien is best described as a computer
it extrapolates its own destruction
it decides to err on the side of caution
and launches an eye for an eye reaction

tho ignorant of these spaceside events
we do all die happy and hopeful

hal 9000 from 2001 a space odyssey 

SOFT PAST - HARD FUTURE

electric smoke
  &
personal terminals

robots on mars
  &
patrolling our sky

perpetual terrorism
  &
corporation owned rain

  i
  am
living the sci-fi
  i 
  read 
as a child

its like they used it as a manual

~

dystopia oh dystopia

how 
innocent 
the 
20thC
seems
now

when all the horrors
were
analogue

from cartoonstock.com