a dead world beneath brilliant balloons
first published in Illumen, issue 12
They caravanned balloons
into the darkening sky, riding
ash-strewn gusts upwards—
praying no cinder would puncture
lest they surrender
another contingent to the mutants
and degenerates
that followed them, hungry
for their knowledge
of war;
the more they lost, the more
they would lose, unless
they fought back: but their knowledge—
their guilt—
and the dead world beneath them
told them where that path led.
First published in Illumen, issue 12, April 2010. Reprinted here by the author.