The sand was shifting beneath me, slowly warming as the warm red light of the twin suns flooded my eyelids. Wait, twin suns?! I scrambled myself up until I was leaning my elbows into the sand. I blinked, my eyelashes sticking, then releasing. I still saw two blazing orbs. I must have fallen down the stairs, knocked my head, and am now seeing double. Yes, that’s it. I brought my hand up to examine my head, and noticed the sand sticking to my palms. Black sand. I’m in...Hawaii? No, that’s not logical, what did I do, teleport, then get knocked out? hesitantly, I glance back up. There are still two suns. And one of them is red. There must be a logical explanation. I search for the last thing I remember. Everything feels heaving, grainy, like the sand. And dark, sinking. I see myself falling to my knees, hands flying to my face to hide it. From what? My face was wet with tears. It slams into me again, the weight, as if the entire planet had turned to iron and crashed onto my head.

The year I turn eighteen,
our atmosphere will release
the last particle of helium
Into space.

I was born in the
2nd
Year of the
2nd
Millenium,
On the 20th

and the 2nd atomic element
will leave our planet in 2020,
2 years from now.

If the universe is made up of math,
all algebra
glimmering with geometry,
tinted in trig
and cradled in calculus,
Then tell me,

Is 18 an equation where if
1 is singularity
and 8 is upright infinity,
then 18= adulthood?

But of course no mathematician will answer me
till I solve for that constant,
find the double of fear,
the square root of censure
round to significance -

To 18
to having
rights a
Vote a
Voice a
Person.

A person
That  forgets anyone with less than
2 digits painted under their eyes,

Salt and pepper purled carpets
smelled of sultry dandelion fluff,
the sun illuminating the cinnamon
lincoln-log blocks resting on the dove-threaded swells.
(Is there peace in a metric rectangle, perched on the clashing seas?)

The hickory seeds would take to their feathers
as we kicked through their sunny fluff,
I'd see the full-seeded flower head as a globe
where the equidistant inhabitants raised their wizened brows in triumph.
(How long ago did you realize the world could never be that sage?)

Those dandelions are stitched 
into the foreground of my memory,
though even then I knew
why the fences wore obsidian arrows:
the stones in this meadow were graves.
(Did you know any of the dead, or are you searching again for kinder strangers?)

We searched for the most distant date, 
one eights, one sevens, last two digits trailing...

(Response to the challenge Titles: Create a poem using only the titles of books near you. Write it in seven minutes.)

I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN,
THE THRONE OF FIRE,
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA.

NAVIGATING EARLY
THE BURNING MAZE,
VISITORS
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.

PATHFINDER:
The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail
The Cucumber King
The Lost Track of Time
The Running Dream.

Under the Egg,
THE SERPENT’S SHADOW,
A PART OF THE SKY,
THE BOOK OF DUST:

The MYSTIC TRAVELOGUES.

counting by 7s,
Mary Oliver’s Devotions
ECHO
THE HIDDEN ORACLE.

#sos18

(Photo Credit: Pixabay, various contributors)

Setting 1: Washington D.C. USA, Earth -Summer of 2016

Tamasha lives with her mother, father and brother (though he is away for most of the story on a gap year trip around South East Asia) in Washington D.C. the capitol of the United States of America, in the Shaw neighborhood of D.C. ,  known for it’s ethnic diversity and emphasis on intellectual and cultural progress. Their family lives in one of the small Victorian style homes typical of that area.

Both she and her brother occasionally visit the Adams Morgan area, known for it’s entertainment and arts scene. Her brother is interested mainly in the restaurants and galleries, which she occasionly visits with him, but Tamasha is later drawn to the area for the musical venues and stores.

Distorted photo taken by moving the smart phone camera rapidly over the objects while in panarama mode, forcing it to stich together disjointed images to creat this one. I then drastically increased the exposure and decreased the vibrancy (along with some other minor adjustments) to give the image a glaring, dreamlike quality. 

two opposing magnets
one having wrenched it's
pole to the flipping point
found non-repelled in a Box

-ed in my mind

2007 CE
the year US annual carbon dioxide 
emissions peaked at
7.37 billion tons
-544 million tons of
potential exponential renewables
and recession
derived decrease in industry
over the next 7 years

As of 2016, 
one american = 4,600 pounds 
of carbon annually.
Population of the land of the Free
(ly cooking themselves in their breath):
323,130,000.

4,600 x 323.13 million pounds
 of satellite-computerized
frigidly air-conditioned shiny black SUVs
fueled by the blood of the earth

​(Sorry this is a day late, I've been a bit busy recently, (yesterday was my birthaday) and didn't have the time/energy/remember to post this till now)

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