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PART OF THE WHOLE
IS MISSING

By Steve Sneyed

what held us together
has fallen apart

we have laid our necks on the line
we have sent for dark claws to sever our bonds

we have summoned rockets decorated as pork legs
are paper-skirt-waisted with bright

exhaust blare circlets saying come come come
come warm bones grown far too old for life

this far from Sun we were birthed under
we have cried the cries the un-fed kittens cry

and still the only answer comes
you do not need us

now you have Happiness Machines
to trance all spares would otherwise have had to

have been sent out like us to colonise
it doesn't matter now how ill we pioneers survive

you bastards at least scrape
the budget for one ship just one

to fetch us home to let us try
your bastard Happiness Machine before we die

you what you say? you say
the only vision the Machine gives them

is being us out here under another star
with room to die alone?

This poem has previously appeared in STAR LINE, USA.

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