Ellen Sazzman

Palindro(n)e’s Sagas

PUBLISHED IN FOLIO 2023: VOL. 38.

unmanned inhuman a nail a head
I am but an aerial vehicle packed
with ordnance my ground-based controllers
remote blips on screen no skin in the dirty game
my direction predetermined [or not] I pick a spot
and zero in on a blot a warm body who looks up
listens to my whirring but it’s too late to escape
to protect the children in a room a womb
of a father’s a mother’s making before
my metallic eye bears down
out of the sky and detonates
we all fall down

but don’t think I don’t care please forget
my name Predator Reaper Scorpion
please think of me as a soldering beacon
bonding with humanity as we splinter

into stardust we all fall down
out of the sky and detonate now
all eyes metallic borne down melting
into craters not of a father’s a mother’s making
parents who couldn’t protect the children the children
we can’t escape who don’t listen who remain standing
on the threshold gun in hand zeroing in on warm blots
direction not looked for ignored wrong spot bored
remote blips on screen no skin in the dirty game
live with ordnance apologies to ground collateral
damage I am but an aerial vehicle unpacked
unmanned inhuman a nail a head