mixed with the DNA of lips
who had drunk Kool-Aid while the world burned.
Silence speaks in steam and stench.
Bony charred hands still clutch their book of rules,
their quibble phones, and black pearls
identifying them as members of Fanatic Denial.
Barely able to walk, shaken by the reality
I am still breathing, my eyes search for life
in the gasps of smoke pulsating around me.
Through the gray I watch human forms
appear in a ghostly resurrection of life
I first assumed were hallucinations.
As they walk forward, I see one of them,
a young woman carrying a journal.
So many things storm my mind,
one being had I survived hell only to
be met with the foul text of failed ordinances.
Prepared to speak every no in me, I stop
as the group keeps to its goal of encroaching
on the toasted bit of earth I believe
will be my final battleground.
Without an introduction the young woman
opens the journal and begins to read.
“According to the Magpie Record, The Lucid Tablets
now becomes the order of law. Article 1 of
The Value of Truth requires every survivor
to go through gaslight deprogramming.”
Who, how, where rests on the tip of my tongue
as I pinch my right arm to verify I’m not dreaming.
Seeing my distress the young woman
places her hand on my wrist and says,
“I’m sorry to be so abrupt. We are standing on an ending
while a new beginning undulates beneath our feet.
Not knowing whether to cry or hug her, I break the ice
from my voice to say, “Miss, I don’t know who you are,
but I was on the Magpie Council when the Record,
and the Lucid Tablets were written.
In the time of the Great Lie the Secret Scribes
oversaw housing the Council’s work
for the Reformation of Freedom in a location
that was known only by them.
Because of security I never saw the journal
you are holding in your hands, but I know every word
that is written in it.
Let me introduce myself to you, “I am Magpie Agent 5.
©Susie Clevenger 2024
