Ancient Electricity

Go and find the ruined cities. There you’ll find your answers. Figure out a way underground where they kept the machines. Start them up again and see what happens. Liquid metal poured out. The cavalry came to collect us. Wet hens clucking from the cuckoo’s nest. Questions we put to the dead. Sucking our fingers we waited. Eels rolled out of the cracks between the floor and wall, unfurled themselvs at our feet. Their electricity powered this ancient world. Outside, people lay everywhere in piles. Enormous costumes waited for us in the next room. Shaking, we put them on and stepped out into the hot night air. Ladybugs descended on us by the thousands. Wealthy animals bestowed on us their treasures. The tyranny of tomorrow brought to a screeching halt. Police sirens turned into love poems. We’d come home at last.