Submissions by jasonedwarddias (Jason Dias)
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
9th Oct 2018 9:12pm
9th Oct 2018 9:12pm
The insignificant
Today's dewdrop world
Is much more cosmopolitan.
Ago, the dewdrop evaporated
From the leaf, leaving behind
Just a memory of grief.
Now it is full of charged particles
Bacteria and eukaryotes,
Tardigrades in no particular hurry.
Stored on microscope slides
And photos on hard drives
And memes around the World Wide Web.
Poor Issa: Even impermanence seems lost today.
Is much more cosmopolitan.
Ago, the dewdrop evaporated
From the leaf, leaving behind
Just a memory of grief.
Now it is full of charged particles
Bacteria and eukaryotes,
Tardigrades in no particular hurry.
Stored on microscope slides
And photos on hard drives
And memes around the World Wide Web.
Poor Issa: Even impermanence seems lost today.
#grief
#death
527 reads
0 Comments
FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
1st May 2018 4:45pm
1st May 2018 4:45pm
Finding Life on Mars: Excerpt 4
I do not know how long I sat there like a mushroom. The rage swirled around and around. I tried to force it into that dark place, the oubliette that sucked at me, tried to pull me in - but whenever it got close, I felt myself getting close, too. After a while, I found myself struggling not with the rage but with the oubliette, with the darkness, with the comforting nothingness that awaited inside my own head.
#loneliness
#anger
754 reads
0 Comments
FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
1st May 2018 4:37pm
1st May 2018 4:37pm
Finding Life on Mars: Excerpt 3
A communication?" Fyodor asked. "But I thought you said everyone had died."
"Effectively true," Merlin replied. "But there is apparently one man alive, and he means to be the last not only on Earth but in the universe. Above our heads is one nuclear weapon, left there to blast out a crevice for a second colony that never materialized. Its name is Erasmus. This person, one Hugh Singh, he said his name was... He intends to drop this weapon on us."
"Effectively true," Merlin replied. "But there is apparently one man alive, and he means to be the last not only on Earth but in the universe. Above our heads is one nuclear weapon, left there to blast out a crevice for a second colony that never materialized. Its name is Erasmus. This person, one Hugh Singh, he said his name was... He intends to drop this weapon on us."
#loneliness
722 reads
0 Comments
FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
29th Apr 2018 3:24pm
29th Apr 2018 3:24pm
Finding Life on Mars: Excerpt 2
I shook my head, lifted off the helmet, stripped away the mask that covered my mouth and nose. Took one breath, exhaled, replaced the mask. Feeling no ill effects for a minute, I took off the mask again, took two breaths. I repeated the process until I breathed the interior air continuously.
"Why did you do that?" Merlin asked.
"I did not wish to risk you. You are too important to the colony," I said.
"The colony?"
"Yes."
He nodded, turned away so I could see nothing of his face. Then he started to take off his own helmet.
"Too much risk," I said. "If there is...
"Why did you do that?" Merlin asked.
"I did not wish to risk you. You are too important to the colony," I said.
"The colony?"
"Yes."
He nodded, turned away so I could see nothing of his face. Then he started to take off his own helmet.
"Too much risk," I said. "If there is...
#loneliness
535 reads
0 Comments
FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
29th Apr 2018 1:24pm
29th Apr 2018 1:24pm
Excerpt from Finding Life on Mars
I was six years old.
"Father, I think I am ill," I said, in my tiny, piping voice.
"Oh?" Merlin said. He set aside the solenoid he was working on and turned his full attention to me. We were in the kitchen and my memory informed me it was identical then and now. "Why do you say so?"
"Look," I said, and extended one hand, palm up. In the center of my palm lay a milk tooth. It had fallen bloodlessly out while I slept. When I awoke, my tongue found a gap in my gums, and I found the tooth on the floor under my sling.
"Oh, you have lost a tooth. How wonderful."
"Then I am...
"Father, I think I am ill," I said, in my tiny, piping voice.
"Oh?" Merlin said. He set aside the solenoid he was working on and turned his full attention to me. We were in the kitchen and my memory informed me it was identical then and now. "Why do you say so?"
"Look," I said, and extended one hand, palm up. In the center of my palm lay a milk tooth. It had fallen bloodlessly out while I slept. When I awoke, my tongue found a gap in my gums, and I found the tooth on the floor under my sling.
"Oh, you have lost a tooth. How wonderful."
"Then I am...
#loneliness
#humankind
572 reads
0 Comments
FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
31st Jan 2018 4:01am
31st Jan 2018 4:01am
A snippit of dialogue
There was no way for us to be together. He wanted to. I remembered love. I was curious about the feeling I had once had, but felt nothing. Love was a sculpture in rock or clay but I was only a drawing on parchment."
#LifeAsAWriter
548 reads
1 Comment
FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
3rd Dec 2017 11:41pm
3rd Dec 2017 11:41pm
Mother Bear: Excerpt from For An Uncertain Future
Heln stood a watch. She did not have to do it: she was still a child until wedded, and she had taken her turn pulling, but she wanted to. Being grown must mean something more than a space in the long hall, more than being tied to a man.
So she had slept the early watch, the easy watch that happened while light still graced the sky, and was awakened in the dark. Lesti touched her shoulder. “Are you ready?”
She climbed out of the pile of warm bodies that was her sleeping family. She thought she saw her mother crack an eye to watch her go. “I am ready,” she whispered.
Lesti...
So she had slept the early watch, the easy watch that happened while light still graced the sky, and was awakened in the dark. Lesti touched her shoulder. “Are you ready?”
She climbed out of the pile of warm bodies that was her sleeping family. She thought she saw her mother crack an eye to watch her go. “I am ready,” she whispered.
Lesti...
#love
#universe
#nature
#humankind
#StreamOfConsciousness
600 reads
0 Comments
FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
27th Nov 2017 8:37pm
27th Nov 2017 8:37pm
Panthoen: An excerpt from To Bury Their Parents
The notion was not so foreign, not so alien. Kuzan was not a person. People did not live in imaginary spaces under the world. Monsters from stories came from those places. Or gods.
Chess used to tell about a queen who, to save her people, battled hoards of monsters trying to erupt out from under the ice at the top of the world. She fought them with a sword made from the tusk of a walrus that was itself a god.
So what was Kuzan, if not a person? A spirit? A monster? A god?
Seta returned, interrupting his thoughts. “I had your clothes cleaned. And I picked some leaves to make a...
Chess used to tell about a queen who, to save her people, battled hoards of monsters trying to erupt out from under the ice at the top of the world. She fought them with a sword made from the tusk of a walrus that was itself a god.
So what was Kuzan, if not a person? A spirit? A monster? A god?
Seta returned, interrupting his thoughts. “I had your clothes cleaned. And I picked some leaves to make a...
#spiritual
#ghosts
#mythology
606 reads
0 Comments
FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
22nd Nov 2017 8:51pm
22nd Nov 2017 8:51pm
The duty of teachers: An excerpt from To Bury Their Parents
He is not a bright boy, I am afraid to tell My King," the teacher said.
"Intellect is rarely a virtue of the rulers," Dllyx admitted. "I suspect he is his father's son more than his mother's, and his father always ruled by force of arms over swiftness of wit. Still, there must be some way to get the histories into his mind."
"My King, it might be helpful to know what it is you want him to know, and then just tell him. He does not seem the type of boy to learn by inference."
"A direct approach, Wyrrn?"
"Yes, My King."
Dllyx thought. "Then drop history completely....
"Intellect is rarely a virtue of the rulers," Dllyx admitted. "I suspect he is his father's son more than his mother's, and his father always ruled by force of arms over swiftness of wit. Still, there must be some way to get the histories into his mind."
"My King, it might be helpful to know what it is you want him to know, and then just tell him. He does not seem the type of boy to learn by inference."
"A direct approach, Wyrrn?"
"Yes, My King."
Dllyx thought. "Then drop history completely....
#PopCulture
602 reads
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FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
22nd Nov 2017 8:49pm
22nd Nov 2017 8:49pm
Dllyx remembers Mithodroxes: an excerpt from To Bury Their Parents
Dllyx sat in Mithodroxes’ old chair, a thing of wicker and neglect. It had been a decade since the shadow of that woman had fallen in these apartments, across this space, over Starfall.
The apartment was as empty now as it had been then. A rough bed of straw now long-rotted, this wicker chair, plain stone walls not even smoothed or dressed. The woman had lived rough even here. She might have eaten the choicest dates and tasted rare wine, eaten honeyed bread, had the best-trained lovers, but she had eschewed all of that to preserve her sight.
I have the whole kingdom,...
The apartment was as empty now as it had been then. A rough bed of straw now long-rotted, this wicker chair, plain stone walls not even smoothed or dressed. The woman had lived rough even here. She might have eaten the choicest dates and tasted rare wine, eaten honeyed bread, had the best-trained lovers, but she had eschewed all of that to preserve her sight.
I have the whole kingdom,...
#LifeAsAWriter
635 reads
0 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
8th Nov 2017 9:24pm
8th Nov 2017 9:24pm
Sasha Shy
Sasha Shy
Here is a new place.
I speak and everyone listens.
Their eyes turn to me.
Their attention turns to me.
Under such eyes and such attention, I fade.
Always before this has meant something else:
Brace for impact!
Incoming criticism!
Imminent shade!
So I clam up, button my lip, forget what I meant to say.
I mumble a few words to get those eyes to go away.
But nobody criticizes. Nobody throws shade.
They listen, and they talk to me.
What’s this, now? Respect?
I’ve never had it, never expected it. ...
Here is a new place.
I speak and everyone listens.
Their eyes turn to me.
Their attention turns to me.
Under such eyes and such attention, I fade.
Always before this has meant something else:
Brace for impact!
Incoming criticism!
Imminent shade!
So I clam up, button my lip, forget what I meant to say.
I mumble a few words to get those eyes to go away.
But nobody criticizes. Nobody throws shade.
They listen, and they talk to me.
What’s this, now? Respect?
I’ve never had it, never expected it. ...
#PopCulture
550 reads
1 Comment
FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
6th Nov 2017 1:25am
6th Nov 2017 1:25am
Excerpt from Asimov's Error
Asimov's Error appears in my new collection of short stories, The Endpoint of Sentience.
“Your Honor,” Summerall said, “I move that we dismiss this case. Nothing said by the product in front of me meets any standard definition of harm. People, human people, spend millions of dollars to delay death, to put off that sense of urgency. Synthetic people acquire longevity at no cost, and even inherit their own bodies at no cost to themselves. Humans strive to restrain their aggressions and sometimes fail, ending up in prison or worse. They inherit biases, sometimes becoming diagnosably...
“Your Honor,” Summerall said, “I move that we dismiss this case. Nothing said by the product in front of me meets any standard definition of harm. People, human people, spend millions of dollars to delay death, to put off that sense of urgency. Synthetic people acquire longevity at no cost, and even inherit their own bodies at no cost to themselves. Humans strive to restrain their aggressions and sometimes fail, ending up in prison or worse. They inherit biases, sometimes becoming diagnosably...
#PopCulture
587 reads
1 Comment
DU Poetry : Submissions by jasonedwarddias (Jason Dias)
