Ascension
by Marina Lee Sable
ASCENSION
If you catch the morning train,
take a look out of the window
and you might see us floating
high up in the distant sky.
Deserting rats in a rattan basket
strung to a hot air balloon,
ballast of jobs and obligations
tossed to the scattered light
of a smog-filled atmosphere,
the industrial sun's bitter orange.
Look out of the window, up and
away from the factory offal, sirens,
cacophony of cars and diesel trucks,
acid rain trees in contaminated soil.
By tomorrow, we'll be ensconced
in clouds of orange,
the color of energy and fire,
Halloween, harvest, and pumpkin pie.
It's also the color of change.
We'll steer our balloon
through a gold-capped cumulus
and ascend to the blue sky's promise
of freedom from a declining world.
Come join us, if you dare.
by Marina Lee Sable
Writers Bio
Marina Lee Sable's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Pedestal Magazine, Strange Horizons, Dreams of Decadence, Paper Crow, OG's Speculative Fiction, Basement Stories, Illumen, Cover of Darkness, and Shelter of Daylight.
Inspirational Image

Pieces Inspired by this Image
'Tainted Sun'
by Ehud Sela
'The Oroborous'
by Michael Shammas
'Time to leave'
by Cath Barton