T-Minus - a short story

T-Minus (Fiction 101 Series)

Cape Canaveral.

“T-minus 10 and counting,” the AI announced. Gender neutral voice. “Nine. Eight.”

Everyone in the capsule and the Control Room heard it. Six astronauts. No humans. Six overseers. No humans. “Seven.” No one heard it at the Main Visitor Complex. “Six.” No one heard it at the Banana Creek Launch Viewing Area. “Five.” No one heard it at the LC-39 Observatory Gantry. “Four.” No one heard it at the Exploration Tower. “Three.” No one heard it at the Westgate Cocoa Beach Pier. “Two.” Nor at any of the other nearby smooth beaches.

Because no one was there to watch. 

Darker Shades of Black - POEM of the MONTH!

Darker Shades of Black
 
Questions in the dark
And falling off the cliff
A child caught by chaos
Abandoning the pontiff
 
Handing out balloons
Shepherds lose their sheep
A child asks for hope
Collapsed into the deep
 
Donning the devil’s shoes
All the rocks cry out
A child stepped upon
Bleeding with a shout
 
Mars in the morning
I swallowed the sunrise
A child opens a vanity
And they dehumanize
 
Nothing left to write
Lost between the lines
A child without a page
Until everyone resigns
 
There’s a clock on the wall
And nothing left to imagine
A child is not recycled dust
But desperate for adoption
 
Surfing on an atomic bomb
What’s written on our plaque
Shadowlands into twilight
With darker shades of black
 
Until…