Her day is coming,
Pampered, fed and bred,
Prisoner in her own castle,
She remembers wings,
But not how it feels to fly,
She can feel this, though,
Deep inside,
In her quivering bowels,
Her pounding heart,
In every nerve and hair.
Any day now
She’ll break loose,
Boil out of this cell,
Like a one-queen horde,
An army of Mom,
A wrecking ball.
Her children will always
Remember that day,
Those who survive it.
And she?
Free at last, Lord,
Free at last!
She’s pretty sure
It’ll be like flying
David C. Kopaska-Merkel edited Star*line [journal of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association] in the late ‘90s, and later served as SFPA President. He won the Rhysling award (long poem) in 2006 for “The Tin Men,” a collaboration with Kendall Evans, and has edited two Rhysling anthologies. He was voted SFPA Grand Master in 2017. His poetry has been published in scores of venues, including Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Polu Texni, Illumen, and Night Cry. He is the author of 30 books, ranging from fantasy poetry to geology. Several are available on Smashwords and Amazon. The newest is a poetry chapbook, Entanglement, co-authored with Kendall Evans, from Diminuendo Press. Kopaska-Merkel edits and publishes Dreams and Nightmares, a genre poetry zine in its 33rd year of publication.
@DavidKM on Twitter. He and his wife live in a 120-year-old farmhouse. He shares a keyboard with two cats.
Published 5/12/19