Here is the 2nd last excerpt from The Sky Stretches Blue. It is the prologue. After the last posting, which will come next week, interviews will be posted to the blogspot and wikizine, and planning will begin on The Shoelace Project.

“Look Into The Fire...”
by Eric Franklin Crow

Natural disaster
Not started so naturally: (Manufactured) tsunami.
Wartime mentality ensues,
Chaos and disorder reign.
Rape gangs and vigilantes wander the street,
No longer able to remember
What they are fighting for, or even whose side they are on.
They capture me, knock me unconscious,
And drag me into an abandoned building.
I am stripped naked, blindfolded, and strapped to a chair.
Just as I am made
To breathe some strange, toxic substance
(From a cloth that I can smell ten feet away),
I hear a loud clicking sound:
That switch of a light, mixed with a gunshot.
All around is instantly silent.
I realize, then,
That my hands are slightly loose
From the knot they’ve been tied in.
I loosen myself from the knot and remove my blindfold.
I see the men who captured me: all lying dead.
I bolt for the door and run for a half mile
And find a small meadow
With a home on the other side.
As I approach, I see a porch
With a rocking chair to the right of the stairs.
The scent of citrus is in the air,
Along with a faint, familiar melody...
While surveying the outside of this house,
I call out, “Hello?”
And hear a faint reply from inside,
“Come inside...”
A man is sitting in front of a fireplace, his back to me.
He says, “Come sit beside me.”
I approach hesitantly, suddenly reminded of my naked body.
(But this is apparently unimportant, as he makes no mention of it.)
As I take my place beside him,
He says, “Look into the fire,”
And then fades away.
As I begin to gaze into the fire,
A speck of light captures my attention and begins to grow.
I touch my hand to it:
Gently, it lifts me and brings me into its light.
I am then posited into a room devoid of windows or furniture
Except for a small desk with computer and keyboard,
And a chair about two feet into the room.
I sit down, and see the “apple” key blinking.
As I press it, a number of screens suddenly appear into the room.
As I run my index finger past each screen,
It highlights and comes closer to me.
I choose an image
Of a hilltop with a man waiting there...
The conversation of my life begins...

©2007 Eric Franklin Crow