A vision

It has been a very long time since I had one of these...

He was the god of fortune cookie luck
he lived on scratch cards, memory sticks and wire
recycled into plastic cups, used once,
then thrown to build the hypodermic hills.

He lived, like all the others, far below
sheath towers where once occupants had fled
in silvered hopes to birth their world anew
On Mars, the Moon or Anywhere But Here.

In space, like sugar spoons, their craft grew still
dismayed that there was nowhere else to go.
The earth that they had scorched returned their love,
and burning dollars filled the empty air.

I was his fate; his treasure to be shown
and bought with food by these homunculi
crouching on sewage, children-eyes so wide
and hands stretched out to touch me as they cried.

‘We saw creatures like you on pictures once,
well-fed, so soft, bright edged and wide of smile.
Human you were, a thousand years ago
Before the Diamond Age destroyed your kind.’

I pointed at the papers strewn about,
put broken biros in their hands to write.
But they were staring at the birdless skies
Where only dreams and rusted tears took flight.