TE23 Double Feature

Gaia Warnings

Philip Burton

Men in Black He’s felt the apologetic lurch with which a plough unearths a high explosive shell but in a corner of a foreign field that is forever dangerous Luk shrugs, finishes the furrow. He damps down the engine, walks the long stir of turned ground and bullish gulls. He pauses, studies, frowns, turns towards his rig, at peace among the milling birds. He pours coffee, unfolds breakfast on a gingham towel. Crisp dark bread. Sweet tomato and today’s gift from the hive. His wide hands cradle a muddied mobile phone.

instead of breeding cosmic mayhem researchers would have re-interred them for fear of unleashing evils to come — but no, we’re saddled with plutonium . 2. Old radioactive atoms turn leaden — as do spent powers like Britain. A world of exclusively inert nations might constitute a more peaceful place but plumbum does a rum thing, alas, oozing down the stained glass a full inch every thousand years. Indead, all history one day disappears. The UK, peering past its hospital mask yearns for a long-unfinished task to resurrect. And this last firework can, appearing to be dead, burn our hand.

104

105