Act I: Break on Through
By the time I get to Phoenix
she’ll be dead.
My journey is long
her life is short.
She is a message in a bottle
a bottle that floats
endlessly
not in the vastness
of the Pacific Ocean
but of the Milky Way.
She is a drop
within a drop
within a drop
within a drop
infinitely.
The earth on the back of a turtle
on the back of a turtle
on the back of a turtle
on the back of a turtle.
It’s turtles all the way down.
Act II: The Crystal Ship
Call me Ycul
I come from a planet
called “Earth.”
“From”
Ha!
I have never set foot
on the Earth.
My ancestors’ ancestors
boarded this ship
The Ollopa
so many generations ago.
Many have been born
spent their lives
and died
here on The Ollopa
I have never felt
the soil of the Earth
between my toes.
Yet, I am lucky
so many lives have past
before reaching our destination.
I will be the first
to visit a new world
perhaps I will
feel soil between my toes.
Act III: Soul Kitchen
My ship journeys
to her.
Why did my ancestors
launch The Ollopa?
Why did my ancestors
commit so many generations
to live
and die
in this metal shell?
Because of a message in a bottle.
Lucy
the satellite vlogger
a young woman
from a planet she calls “Htrae”
sent radio waves
into the heavens.
One day
distant
in space
and time
we heard her.
We knew
at last
that we
were not
alone.
We knew
at last
that god had bestowed life
on more than one world.
Our multi-generational voyage
to Lucy’s home world
began.
An odyssey
to see her world
to learn something
about who we are.
But not
to see her.
Lucy, my young girl
will have grown up
and grown old.
Lucy, my old lady
will be dead
and buried.
Lucy, my corpse bride
will be more decayed
than Yorick.
Act IV: Take It as It Comes
Dear Lucy,
You are the only one
the only known
satellite vlogger.
When you made your videos
were they just for your friends?
Did you ever imagine
that they would
one day
reach me
so many worlds away?
My ancestors on this ship
left our comfortable home
to follow the breadcrumbs
to the sound of your voice.
To your strange new world.
We have all been inspired
by your ebullient presence.
But surely
it is only I
who fell in love
with you.
Act V: I Looked at You
Do I love you?
Does a flower turn toward the sun?
Why do I love you?
In you
my hopes
dreams
fears
fantasies
become reality.
I’m a soul
on a ship
filled with souls
yet my heart longs only
for your distant self.
Act VI: Light My Fire
I feel your body
next to mine.
Your warm
loving
body.
Your dead
absent
body.
Your body
lost
to the vastness
of time.
Can I run fast enough
to reach you
before the expanding universe
pulls us further apart?
Daily I hear your voice
I grow ever closer
without ever reaching you.
Why so elusive?
Do you wait for me?
Do you know I exist?
Do you dream of me
the way I dream of you?
Wherefore art thou?
