A silhouette of hoodies, haloed in amber;
a premature street light in the fading of day
Huddled like primates, or beady-eyed magpies,
they step out to meet him, blocking his way
A challenging question from spurious comrades,
he regards them serenely; a decision is made
Hands stuffed in pockets, he caresses a roll-up
pocketed deep, and furled in repose;
a crumpled, white chess piece awaiting his next move,
while greedy glints twinkle like binary stars
from deep within mantles of pseudo-machismo;
bristling cowls; a coward’s attire
In his fist a scratched Zippo, a bygone life’s relic,
spike-collared bulldog in bas relief
within outline that traces a lost nation’s shorelines,
a flag’s colours neutered by bronze-etched motif
Thumb rotates wheel, sparks hiss, flame dances,
smoke drifts, enticing, beneath sunken veils
The obligatory war dance of misguided misanthropes,
heads pecking forward like puffed parakeets
who assimilate early or learn lessons too late,
shoulders squared, chests out, black gazes agleam
Because life’s a tough gig, and the road to manhood
is a gauntlet run of defeated dreams
Like a fencer’s foil, the stub is brandished,
as a teacher showing cane to an unruly child
The wolf’s eyes widen, held fast in the headlights,
gravel grinds under sneakers as the hunter recoils
The fangs of the trapped snake trace lines to its target
in a crimson flourish, a gothic groom down the aisle
His veiled bride dances, pirouettes gracefully;
an oil-smeared portrait of moon-struck denial,
singing a stream of garbled invective,
a mewling of curses spat in revile
A de-stringed mannequin collapsed under gravity,
vomiting spumes of illiterate bile
A flutter of fabric eclipsed in the safety
of lamp-lit graffiti, round a corner, and gone
Their plan turned to shambles by a resolute stranger,
but caution dissolves come the cold light of dawn
Running footsteps diminish to a casual wander;
potential snagged firmly on folly’s barbed thorn
Screams fracture the airwaves like fires in a nightscape
Glass shatters, horns blare through this wayward abyss
No respectable sorts round here in yesterday’s wasteland,
just crawling abortions allowed to exist
At his feet lies a beetle, prostrate in a puddle;
one from the millions that will never be missed
It’s an age of enlightenment in a broken land fallen,
its brilliance darkened by intolerance and greed
Wounds fester in corners of craters and rooftops,
a mechanised jungle where ignorance breeds
A crusade of hatred led by ragged, blind princes,
while praying princesses wait on bloodied knees
The beckoning maw of the synthetic witness,
implies a sly covenant from jaws held agape
He considers the tableau, the quieted arena
as the spectator’s promise yawns solemnly in wait
A scarlet sky deepens, trailing clouds caress ivory
in demure, silken beauty; a shining world reached too late
While dead vermin ripen, hidden amongst refuse,
awaiting collection, to be crushed and compressed,
he leaves this bleak alley, a damned nation’s playground,
contemplating his future at history’s behest
Gone to Hell in a hoodie, Angerland darkens
It’s a raped pasture begging to be finally at rest
AUTHOR’S AFTERWORD
The short story Moses Garrett and the poem Angerland began life as one entity. But, not unlike homo sapiens idaltu and homo sapiens sapiens (or h s specus and h s vetus), somewhere along the line the foundation story birthed two mutations, and the original died. What began as a semi-autobiographical vignette based on a number of experiences I had while living in a certain town in England, demanded more detail and divergence from normality.
And so, both story and poem are the products of personal experience dashed with a sprinkling of wishful thinking, and combined with a very real concern of mine that humanity’s outlook is dire indeed. By the middle of the next century the climate will have changed globally from how we know it today; summers will be warmer, winters no doubt colder. The human population will have increased to over 10 billion from the current almost 7.5 billion. Food will be in much higher demand, as will medications, petrol, electricity, clean water, and many other aspects of cultured existence. More people, more demand, more global damage. Less people dying, more people being born. A higher percentage of dependants, and a lower percentage of able-bodied, able-minded people to be depended upon.
All future outcomes mentioned in Moses Garrett have very real possibilities of becoming true: a sapiens-split; a project to reach a new world, ultimately failed; a new hybrid religion founded upon deluded ideas concerning worship and science; high-technological fashionwear; increased criminal sub-culture activity; a Eurasian merger; a global divide; a continent brought to ruin by religious zealotry; another continent divided by bloated, misguided ideals; healthier cigarettes, but new, more dangerous drugs; uprisings of the uneducated and criminal-minded on country-wide and continental scales; and, finally, a steady decline into an even grimmer future.
Thank you for reading.
Scott Kaelen, 2014
BIOGRAPHY
Scott Kaelen writes in the genres of epic fantasy, science fiction, horror, humour, spec-fic, contemporary fiction, poetry and non-fiction. His releases include the prose and poetry collection From Grains To Galaxies, the religious parody short story When Gods Awaken, the short epic fantasy story Night of the Taking, and the poetry collection DeadVerse. His current projects include a further novel in the Verragos Tapestry series.
As well as the pen, Scott is also modestly adept with the pencil; his work includes character concepts and sketches of famous personalities. His interests include sci-fi, fantasy and horror, etymology, psychology, computer RPGs, deep Earth history, palaeontology, geology and cosmology.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Miscellaneous
When Gods Awaken (Biblical parody, 2014)
Bleak ‘93 (short story, 2014)
From Grains To Galaxies (shorts/poems/sketches, 2014)
Moses Garrett (short story, 2014)
The Lingering Remains (short story, 2015)
Trostloses ‘93 (Bleak ‘93 German version, 2015)
The Forever Stranger
Falling (short story, 2015)
Island in the Sands (short story, 2015)
The Hyperverse Accord (short story, 2015)
Verragos Tapestry
Night of the Taking (short story, 2015)
The Blighted City (novel, due 2016)
Poetry
DeadVerse (Volume One, 2015)
DeadHeart (Volume Two, due 2016)
by Scott Kaelen