Mechwarrior

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper

I

There is nothing

Fire

Mechs

The mechs are rising in the east like the sun did

Once

I took my shoe of the cab

“My dead friend wished you to have this”

“No thank you”

Katie never liked flowers; she gave me hers

Rosebuds in winter gardens.

II

A bit of frost on the belly of the giant robot sings like a flag in the wind

There is manliness

Only manliness

I scream: “WHAT THE FUCK! HOW DO I CONTROL THIS?! WHAT DOES THIS BUTTON-”

Silence

Press restart;

I sit across from a shell – an empty sack of garbage.

Ross says to Rachel, “We’re pregnant?” But it’s not funny.

Zoroaster is burning

Oh dem be the brakes. Oh dem be the brakes. Sin me to Georgia, oh dem be the brakes!

I chew it with one hand

III

Manliness

In my own body the blood curls around lips that I knew before

Sonic and Knuckles Adventures

Thorton Winfrey waits for his moment in the sun

I shoot

“There’s no shame in it, son”

Grapes hang from a tree. I pluck

Yelling.

The Matrix; the last scene when that dude is shooting everyone and he’s angry

Neo.

Satan falls below the earth at last

IIII

Mechwarrior is the cruelest game

Feeding a little life with dried tubers