by Saman­tha Hen­der­son & Kendall Evans
USA

(after Franken­stein, Edi­son Stu­dios, 1910:)

Burn me to life
In your fires of creation
Melt me to flesh
In your scald­ed image
I will be born
Of your hot desires

This is the age of cel­lu­loid and electricity
Tamed to cop­per coils, of light
So bright the gods wince and shield
Their weep­ing eyes, of sound
Bound to wax and wire and carried
To any com­mon ear

Did Tesla’s lightning
Jolt my grave­yard heart
To life?
I’ve wept
Seek­ing revenant memories
With­in my rob­bered brain

This is the dawn of dis­em­bod­ied sound
of shad­ow phan­toms, sepia girls
danc­ing like Baby­lon, of God’s
own Zep­pelin, moon high
& can­non-shot rock­ets pierc­ing the lunar eye

Burn me to life
In your crucible
Fire my flesh
The worm-spark burrows,
Trans­forms me with pain
I am the clay in your kiln

---

More than 250 poems by Kendall Evans have appeared in var­i­ous sci­ence fic­tion, fan­ta­sy, and hor­ror mag­a­zines. His poet­ry chap­books include POETRY RED SHIFTED IN THE EYES OF A DRAGON and IN DEEPSPACE SHADOWS. He is also the author of the nov­el­ette “Don Huavaca’s Dia De Los Muer­tos” and a nov­el-length sci­ence fic­tion Ring Cycle, THE RINGS OF GANYMEDE, which con­sists of four linked dra­mat­ic poems.

Saman­tha Hen­der­son’s short fic­tion and poet­ry have been pub­lished in Realms of Fan­ta­sy, Strange Hori­zons, Gob­lin Fruit and Weird Tales, the antholo­gies Run­ning with the Pack and Fan­ta­sy, and reprint­ed in The Year’s Best Fan­ta­sy and Sci­ence Fic­tion, Steam­punk II: Steam­punk Reloaded, and the upcom­ing Mam­moth Book of Steam­punk. She is the author of the For­got­ten Realms nov­el Dawn­bringer.

Kendall and Samantha’s col­lab­o­ra­tive poem, “In the Astro­naut Asylum,” was the win­ner of the 2010 Rhys­ling Award for long-form poetry. 

Filed under: Jabberwocky 12