Departing Normalcy: Liftoff / Prologue

Flashing lights illuminating liftoff flights
     Ships dwindle to stars propulsion rocket in the night
          Slum chumps stare at the spaceport through screens
                    and steel fences. And the air screams, rent as
ascending angels tear the silken stratosphere
          galactic gamble each and every voyage
                              every vessel a missile
carrying the seeds of a mothers tears, a million fears and hopes
dreams pounded into the shapes of ancient sailing ships and set
astern. sternly surveying the whole of space. frames tense eager
     titanium birds strain to fly. built for the sky they languish inside
          only come alive when they reach escape velocity and

hang

          alive and lonely
                              slowly rotating
                                             in pure inky blackness
star splattered chaotic Pollack canvas
     insane universe of random chance where
a thousand million true tall tales have launched
               from the cracked tarmac of this spaceport.

          I grew up here, ya know
               this very planet, watching this very spaceport

although in my day, they didn’t have these electric fences.

          through the eyes of a slum child, the voice is enormous
wise, weary, worn with smoke and adventure and stardust
          a hero in a battered bomber jacket with
war insignia and a thousand patterned patches.

          in my day, you didn’t have to
                    (Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip)
               cut through a security fence, just to steal back my own...

well, lets just say it was a lot more fun back then

     and the voice slips through the perimeter like a noiseless ghost
               an illusion of cool that no one will ever believe
“like jah cowboi'd uv chatted up a durtey slum rat like ye, channi”

channi the slim slum chump slumps home to mom and pop, while
the voice slinks through the shadows, dancing in rhythm with the
security lights and camera sightlines avoiding all and
leaving no trace. to his own ship he steals, to quickly escape.

tracking collar clanks to the cracked tarmac.
          which soon heats and twists,
cracking in the heat from the retro rockets.
          rising on tongues of flame

ahem.

a creased voice crackles across the flight tower intercom.

okay suckers. you’ve had me impounded here for two weeks on
suspicion of trafficking in illegal goods.
well, i’ve got places to be and beings to see
and this state of stasis just isn’t suiting me.

sayonara, spacenerds.

and the Io points her painted prow skywards
     with a sonic boom she soars into the sunrise
               the port named normalacy dwindles to a memory while
                         the universe rises to fill the viewport