Day 15 - The break out

 
Now hidden in the catacomb a message written on a crypt.
That led them to a basement where a very ancient manuscript
was lying there forgotten by the world for half a century
about a man who helped his wife escape from penitentiary.

She had been down for murder but identity was never made.
In fact the victim was alive and living in the everglade.
I say alive but really she had joined the host vampirical,
then faked her death and framed her friend with evidence empirical.

He knew that if he told the truth no one would take him seriously.
He visited but could not stand that she should live vicariously.
And so he came up with a plan to free her from captivity.
And vowed that he would never rest until she gained her liberty.

The plan involved a football match, an eagle, and a rodeo.
A gun carved from a bar of soap, and knives made out of toblerone.
A tunnel dug out with a spoon, a guy in laundry sorting socks, 
a chisel hidden in a cake, a convoy, and a vaulting box.

A vicar's costume stolen after breaking into church at night. 
A bag of snakes, a boxing match, and realigning searching lights.
A riot, and explosions, and an outbreak of mild dysentery.
With all of these distractions, she just wandered out the prison free.

And reunited at long last they vowed that they would take revenge,
upon their one time friend, undead, who now no more could make amends.
They booked a train to Florida, and packed their bags with pointy sticks,
with holy water, crossbows, and a silver inlaid crucifix.

They tracked her to a disused house which sweltered by a cherry tree,
behind which in the swampy ground there lay a mini cemetery.
An empty coffin in a crypt beside it a small campfire burned,
as they approached a shadow moved and that was when the vampire turned.

"Because of you for 3 years I was left to rot in county jail.
Before I rid this world of you I want to hear your founding tale.
How did you end up in this state? A vampire and a criminal?"
The vampire laughed "my sire was a modern major general."

"He's standing right behind you and he'll turn you to the other side,
unless you kill him quickly now you'll wish that you had rather died".
But here the writing finished on that fifty year old document.
They looked each other in the eye and wondered how the story went.

 
And that was when they realised in the basement they were not alone. 
Two figures had been sitting there and watching as they read the tome.
Were they the vampire, and her sire the modern major general?
Or had that woman with her man defeated those nontemporal?

Day 14 - They did not come from outer space

Slow the fog creeps in. Settles on skin and goes deep in. I remember you freaking. Standing arms wide and leaping. Demanding we hide from the dogs that were seeking to track us all down for the reaping. We never lied nor cried as we slipped from sight in the forest. Below the logs the fog  won't reach and the Earth is breathing. The fungi forever bequeathing the soil its due while keeping the fog at bay. We toil and through endeavour, we foil the blue and clever creatures with the elongated features that have taken over the land today. 

They came from the beaches. Shaking off the sand that was clinging to their hands and feet, their fingers like leaches, reaching for our skin to let the fog in, curling into our pores. We bandage up the sores and keep score. They were not aliens. Not from another world. They hadn't hurled through space in a ship to face us. They had been here the whole time, giving no sign no slip, that they came from the sea, deeper than a coalmine. Watching, clocking, all this time and mocking us our puny civilisation. Our nations crumbled before us. The cities rumbled to sawdust. 

But still we stood and hid in our hood, the bold and the bad and the good. Striking hiding. While we the old and the mad in the woods were hiking, staying out of reach and biding our time by the ford and the logs. Praying that those leach-like hands wouldn't find us and bind us to the fog and remind us they were our lord. But no chord is louder then the collective, harmonic, respective defiance of those demonic creatures from the oceans. No potion stronger than uniting and fighting together as one until the day is done. 

And so we struggle on, a tug of war of guerrilla antics to muddle our opponents. Striking from the interior against their superior strength and tactics. And we would be winning if it wasn't for the fog. But they would have won if it wasn't for the logs. 

Day 13 - The Choice

Oh we could feed the world if we wanted
There's more than enough food to see us through
Just think how great 
to have a meal on every plate 
And it wouldn't be that hard to do.

Oh we could end all war if we wanted 
if we didn't worry who is ruling who
It would be such heaven
if we didn't use our weapons
And it wouldn't be that hard to do.

Oh we could stop the hate if we wanted
Just teach people everyone's the same
Deep down we're all together 
We could live in peace for ever
Its so easy having nobody to blame. 

We could clean the seas and skies if we wanted.
We could power things from wind and wave and sun
Just imagine the emotion
if we had a living ocean
And this wouldn't be that hard to fund

You see

we've done all of the hard things already
We send people off to space 
Sculpture artworks full of grace
Ancient origins we trace 
Detailed maps of every place
Construct buildings fine as lace
Mind computer interface
Hearts and lungs and hips replace.
All the hardships that we've faced
lockdowns, virus, in one place,
has prepared the human race 
to be so much on the case.

That now 
right now 
we could actually save the world

Day 12 - The beach

Breaking on the steps of the beach 
the waves hit the shore
as they had before.
Can you hear them?

Now with humans long out of reach,
more turtles could hatch
an entire batch.
Can you see them?

Hurling selves on sand through the night
they scurry along
and keep going strong.
Now you watch them.

Battling the wind and the sand
till they reach the sea
where they can swim free.
You can't catch them.

All they want is to get on with life.
No real difference to you or I.
Through the hardship until we can fly.
All that we can do is try. 

Day 11 - The find

Hills and jagged lines
Sun approaches skyline
Clouds pinken and redden
Easy on the eye-line.
He sits down to rest  
No one is around
On a lush green hill 
He takes out what he found.
Weighs it in his hand 
He holds it to the light
Smooth and dark and flat
Fits in palm just right.
Voices from below
Hitting leaves with sticks
Upright taller beings
Strange wise and foolish mix.
He gets up to leave
Heading up the hill
Prickling of his fur
Says perhaps stay still.
They come out of  trees.
Bares his jagged teeth
But voices that he knows
On the hill beneath.
Recognise their smell
Friends he knows are these,
Standing upright now
hands beside his knees.
"There you are Golden
and you found her phone.
Jane was getting worried
now off you go on home."

https://janegoodall.ca/our-stories/famous-chimps-of-gombe/

Day 10 - The talk

He got a note from the broadcaster, his talk on nature had to be given in rhyme.

It is only on the rarest of the warmest summer night,
that you get to see the wonder of the fireflies in flight.
Then just briefly you shall witness their exquisite dance of light.

In decapentasyllabic triplets. Or else he would be pulled off air. 

Noctiluminescent clouds that light an August sky at night
are a much rarer occurrence, very few have seen this sight.
For it needs ice clouds of crystals at a very certain height.

No mention of climate change. Just natural phenomenon. Nothing to alarm people.

Rarely still quadruple rainbows, 2 in front and 2 behind,
means you cant catch them on camera. Frames can never be aligned.
In the last three hundred years then, only 5 were verified.
 
The broadcaster had become quite prescriptive of science content since the latest director general took over. Still he had to get his point across. 

But the rarest of these sightings is the one to make you frown

In the last half billion Earth years there have been just five somehow.
Those events of mass extinction and we're going through one now.

Day 9 - Snow thoughts

The ice on the pond melted early that year so they didn't quite manage to skate.
And though Spring came eagerly bounding along like a puppy let out of the gate,
it didn't feel right that Winter was gone when it already had arrived late.
The white arctic hares woke from short hibernation, but seemed reluctant to mate.
The reindeer weighed down by their late term gestation as if they were going to inflate.
And bearberries started to show through the snow, unheard of in this northern state.

The look in his eyes was of studied concern as he whittled the log in his hand.
His mind kept returning to how the world changed, while his hands kept on carving the stand.
The world that he knew when his father was young, was becoming a different land.
And he worried at what all that change would entail, for he didn't think it would be grand.
And how all the folk would to keep on with their lives, had not, to his knowledge, been planned.
In this strangest of times, when the winter was short, and the spring had been stretched like a band.

He stood up from his work as he need a break, 'cos his mind had not been on the wood.

But even distracted the block he had held had begun to take shape as it should.
As a bird that was perched on a short stump of tree, peering out as if under a hood.
If he thought there were ways to set right how things were, he'd do all that he possibly could.
Yet he knew that small changes when placed close together, had the power to make the most good. 
So he didn't despair looking out at the snow, in the same space his father once stood.

Day 8 - Here

Here now. 

In the sun.
Leaves dapple the light.

A florist turns up the radio and dances round her empty shop. Sound waves interweave through flowers clothing red tulips and yellow peonies in chords and harmonies.

A dog laps at water in a bowl.

Children roll themselves down a grassy hill, while others clamour into a sweetshop to stock up on cola bottles.

A man on a bike huffs his way up a hill, the sweat coming through his expensive suit. His mind on the choc ice he will have when he gets home.

A tube driver parks an empty train onto the siding, contemplating the day's work they have just completed.   

An old lady in black widow's threads drinks a glass of wine with cheese and olives at a table in her garden.

Here there is laughter. Here sorrow or joy. 
Here is where we are. Here in the pause between the notes, we find the fabric of life.

Day 7 - Love Interrupted

From the crashing turbulent sea she emerged fully formed. It was only from that that moment that the world knew beauty. Her words, though few, were like earthquakes, causing cataclysms or triumphs to befall humanity. Her power was the passion that drove all people to constant endeavour. Her mere presence could start or end wars.

Like most deities, she found lockdown difficult. She soon grew bored of zoom calls. All her friends had their own hobbies to keep them going and that was all they ever talked about: The Fates had their knitting, Demeter her gardening, Artemis her running and archery, Athena her books, Hephaestus had started making and selling jewellery online, while Ares just played World of Warcraft all day. And Apollo, well he seemed to be working all hours these days.

But she needed people. She was only happy in a crowd. And so she counted down the days when she could roam free once more, compelling the world to love again.

Day 6 - Moving on up

The street was built on ancient woodland. They kept some of the trees to lend character,  but neat lawns replaced rotted oaks collapsed on forest floor.

The first five families had moved in. He went to see how they were getting on. Cars were in drives but no one answered. 

He walked round to one of the gardens. A pair of foxes had got into the kitchen. The door was unlocked so he went inside. He was about to shoo them out, but they stared at him with curious eyes. He paused, felt unsettled, and left. 

In other kitchens more foxes. Not disrupting anything, just sitting on chairs or tables, all making him feel rather uneasy. He would come back again another day. 

He drove back through the high street. There were no people. Perhaps there was a local Covid outbreak and people had been told to stay indoors. There were a lot of foxes though. 

Back home he called for his wife and three kids. No answer. In the kitchen he found 4 foxes. He leapt up on the kitchen table using his tail for balance and nuzzled his snout against the largest one.