FOR PROMETHEUS
We were born as dragons
Learned to fly
The hard way -
Thrown out of the nest
Falling to our deaths until
We realized we had wings
And the sky was our possession
We were born as dragons
Something in our blood
Makes all we say catch flame
We live as a fire
We love as a flame
Distilled concentration focused to reach
A new, yellow glare of intensity
In a moment
We flare out of love for life
Blinding you as lightning striking
And watching us you cannot breathe
In a moment we will flicker and
The light goes out.
We live as a flame
We love as a fire
And when we die
We go flying to follow
Wherever the smoke goes
But until then
Our hearts are fuelled on flames
That burn brightly, brightly
As a thousand suns and moons
Lined up in a glowing sky
And nothing and no one
Can hold us down
Or stop us on this flight.
H’igh Cue
"Kat!..Kat!" Someone punched me in the arm, trying to wake me up. I hit back and rolled over, trying to continue my snooze.
The arm returned and this time, pinched me. Throwing the cover off, I was about to really give someone a wallop, when I remembered where I was and froze.
The psychic I used to visit (named Yahwa, incidentally) had told me to round up a guy and, if I wanted, two of each "cute beast", but the guy was most important. Thinking it was some kind of joke - What? Was my name Noah, now? - I had laughed and laughed until I hurt. Then, it started raining.
But it was not rain of the H2O variety. No. That new dunderhead in office had the codes, and hence access to, all kinds of nuclear havoc and he was soon to wreak it. So after the first test of President Dunder's new power, which caused ash to cover everything in the city, me and my boyfriend, Rich, went to work on creating an underground bunker.
Fortunately, it wasn't that difficult, as we already lived in a basement under a basement (don't ask), so we really only had to soldier it up and supply it. I don't care for too many animals, so I only got a pair of cats, pair of dogs, and two geese. He saved two iguanas, two snakes, two ferrets, and a pair of rats...Oh, and we also had two goldfish...and I guess the spiders and centipedes must count, though neither of us know their genders. Oh, well, c'est la vie.
So, we settled in and waited for the end to come. We didn't have long to wait, because our new PHOOLTUS (Pumpkin-Head of our Lost & Torn United States) pressed that button less than a year after being sworn in.
After what I think was about two weeks, it became deathly quiet up above. Even two stories underground, we'd been able to hear the crying and the screaming and the toppling of buildings. We also kept the television trained to TCH News, to keep an eye and ear on news developments until there was no more news. Fortunately - or unfortunately? I'm really not sure, considering the circumstances - neither of us had any family to worry about and our friends had refused to listen, so we couldn't save anyone aside from ourselves.
So, back to the punching and pinching. Fully awake, I rubbed my eyes and looked at Rich. He was grinning at me with that look I knew only too well, his bald head gleaming in the little bit of light afforded by our large overhead lamp.
"So, I guess now we're the two smartest people in the world, huh?" he said. Actually, I hadn't even thought of that. "So how 'bout we see if we can make the world's smartest baby, since we're supposed to replenish the world and all." His hand slid up my left thigh, so I smacked it.
"Seriously, Rich; we just lost everyone we knew and loved and you're thinking about SEX?...And now, I am the world's smartest person. "
"What better way to take our minds off the tragedy, babe?" He brushed an auburn loc out of my eye and went for a kiss. "And I'm the smartest."
I pushed him away. "No, Rich!"
"Fine!" he said grumpily and left, presumably to go watch some porno on his barely-surviving tablet. He didn't know that I knew, but he had a library of movies and he seemed to slant towards the parody ones, like Bend-Hur, Grease (it Up), and The Seven Dwarfs in Snow White (yuck!).
Sighing, I got up and went to feed the animals, then make food for ourselves. He came traipsing into our makeshift kitchen just as the eggs were finished. Sitting at the table, he picked up where he had left off. "So," he said, mouth full of biscuit, "I've been thinking about this. Even though it's true that you may be the book-smartest, I have the most common-sense, so we're equally smart." I opened my mouth to answer, but he hushed me, "Ah ah ah... So, since we somehow still have the Internet, I propose we take several tests to see if we're equal or if one's just a shade brighter. How about we do an actual IQ test and some of those other tests online, the ones with trick questions like, 'If you're in a crash that kills 50% of the passengers, where do you bury the survivors."
"Nowhere, obviously," I answered before he could, "cuz you don't bury survivors...and just the fact that you'd use that example shows poor taste and therefore a lack of common-sense. But fine, let's do it."
So we took the tests after breaking our fast and what do you know, but we did turn out to be equally smart, just in different ways. Our intelligence determined, we settled into our little couch, to watch some DVDs. Midway through The Matrix, his hands starting roaming again. Having taken a different kind of test that morning, I knew I was ovulating, so I went along with it. Three times. Besides being very smart, we were also quite randy together.
Copulations thus finished, I went to wash myself, while he lounged in bed. When I returned, he smiled and opened his arms for post-copulation cuddling. He never even saw the gun in my hand (Hey, I said I was smart, not loving or good).
Standing over his body, I watched the blood ooze from the massive hole in his head. "Now who's the smartest," I said.