Fading Embers

On the horizon, like candles, hundreds of them burning, shimmering in the desert heat, soot-black plumes rising vertically. Above, a delicate mackerel sky, clear and blue, hovering over the grey sheets of smoke.

Gulf war syndrome: characterised by fatigue, muscle pain, cognitive problems, insomnia, rashes, and diarrhea. Likely causes: use of and/or exposure to depleted uranium ammunition, pyridostigmine bromide pills, organophosphate pesticides, sarin nerve gas, anthrax vaccines, PTSD, and of course, the inhalation of oil smoke.

A clear dark sky. The wind is still and silent, as if the world holds its breath. The milky way looks out upon a land of steppe and forest, a hard land populated by a proud people. At the thin line of the horizon a dull red glow rages; a city engulfed by conflagration.

It is rumoured Napoleon exclaimed, “What a terrible sight! And they did this themselves! So many palaces! What an incredible solution! What kind of people! These are Scythians!” as he watched from the Kremlin.

The afternoon sky seethes and rages. The sun still burns. “Space echoes like an immense tomb, yet the stars still burn. Why does the sun take so long to die?” But the truth is, not so long as you think, my friend, not so long as you think…