kimbell frowns & punches the code in
cups his hands behind his head & then kaboom!
somebody hold me
the explosion blows the entire console to pieces
& kimbell halfway across the room
somebody hold me
“i ain’t dead yet” he says, getting to his feet
“i guess about now’s a pretty good time to leave”
with his one good hand he reaches for the gasman
swallowing as he does the certain fact
somebody hold me
a chain reaction in the atmosphere is
engulfing the planet all the way from tel aviv to ballarat
somebody hold me
wiping out everything in its path at some speed
them crazy mixed up robots wouldn’t believe
looking north from her old verandah
linda yells “hey missy, come look at this!”
somebody hold me
the great dark churning mass of cloud comes
rolling across the horizon, “honey, time for one last kiss”
somebody hold me
next thing they’re floating on by the old milking shed
in a six foot wide open-air flying saucer instead
linda sees right there the fence needs painting
the poplars waving gently in the breeze
somebody hold me
her child seems strangely accustomed to such
sudden shifts in cow-herding possibilities
somebody hold me
the system switches to manual, missy touches the screen
she’s only eight, still the blinking orange light turns to green
kimbell opens his eyes looking up at
the face of some woman he thought he might once have known
somebody hold me
a long time ago when he was just a little
boy on some nowhere farm up a dead-end road
somebody hold me
& just like he’s woken up in someone else’s dream
it takes a second or two to soak up the jungle scene
linda snatches some green-coloured insect
off a branch & puts it between her teeth
somebody hold me
“say you still alive mister husband
looks like things didn’t work out so well in tel aviv?”
somebody hold me
“y’gonna wake up now & meet your little girl
or are you just one less cicada in this world?”
the van dyke crystal had a mind of its own, you never
knew if it was just kidding or somehow it made sense
somebody hold me
like when pasha flaps her wings as a parrot does when
what’s meant is better said with some righteous show of clumsiness
somebody hold me
kimbell pulls himself up off the ground
“i suppose that missy might be somewhere here around?”
