Brandon Fick has a B.A. Honours Degree in English from USask and a Writing Diploma from St. Peter’s College, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Writing at USask. Brandon has previously been published in in medias res and The Society. “Requiem for the Soul” posits a future where the human body is something to be harvested, where retaining one’s soul is rare.
Requiem for the Soul
The clock on the mantle strikes midnight,
2100 erupts in a fissure of space and time
and you hack into a handkerchief and stare
at the black glass pane pressing your face
into eternal entrapment that the mortal coil
cannot dream of, for you’re one hundred and one
and creased skin must shed vacuous bones
bent with century rust, rapacious flexing of limbs
all too tasty, no one could stop your soul bursting,
not even tyrants of tech who would slave you,
poke you, prod you, like mad cattle, to steal
radiant skull-enclosed waves for a frivolous game,
no, you beat the bastards and will slip soul-whole
down home from the cerulean-cesspool.
You can follow Brandon on Instagram @brafic98 and on Twitter @Brafic98.
This piece is part of the in medias res Jan. 2021 “Reflection” Issue. You can read the full issue under the tag “Jan. 2021.”
Image: Original image from NASA (Public Domain)