for Marcell Géza Takács

they called me elder / now that I am

[—by ISMMG Corporation. During this mandatory orientation and training, we will supply you with basic mining gear, as well as information about the latest—]

useless scrap metal / now folded under shale,
trapped in pockets of compressed ground. I
exhaled gas, exhaled until there was no more
waiting for friends, waiting even for miners

[—the remnants of entities which are sometimes referred to as ‘living ships,’ though their exact nature is unknown. Look out for iridescence, layered enamel in a peacock hue: small scraps of 10cm square may fetch as much as 3mil—]

under weighed ground / but nobody came, ever

[—to wear your headpiece at all times: you might hear voices. Even when affected, most miners suffer no permanent damage. Your risk and liability paperwork indicates—]

but once I changed shape
to the reverberation, navigated
the outflung stars, numbers
confirming to pathways calculated by mothers

[= my question? I have heard of ghosts—
    voices, trapped in bubbles of gas
    between layers of shale =] 

Whose voice will find me now /
call me back, call me councilor, call me
elder, a woman of bent metal

[—rumors of larger fragments so far unsubstantiated, but investing in latest models of gear is advisable, in case you come across—]

call me like before, a carrier of troops / avoider
of peace, soldier in a named shape
of sung metal and starflung roads               

[—to answer: is it worth running a risk of psychological damage for a fairly substantial possibility of profit?—]

but like flames in the wind,
war after war has been extinguished,
until there was no need for us. On world upon world

[= how can we rob her
    do you not hear her speak
    of the old wars—cannot you hear? =]

they shifted tectonic plates, terraformed
the destruction they wrought, erased into oblivion /
Ash–choked rivers
turned volcano glass

[= I forget what language first birthed me,
   what song engendered my birth =]

[—we never before had a case of someone this severely affected during training. No, insurance will not cover—]

magma had swallowed
the steel domes where we had been sung. /
I forget what language first birthed me,
what song engendered my birth,
my mothers’ voice
must have lent me a form

[—independent mining is strictly prohibited. This planet belongs to ISMMG Corporation. Offenders will be—]

From time to time
miners, I think, hear me,
humans who could have sung
ships to life in the old days, become our mothers,
sisters / now lost between folds
of shale and obsidian
a song has yet to find me

[=here to purchase mining gear. No, it is none of your business=]

Sing your path to me
unearth what is left
ruins of my birth

[= an entrapment
    of your birth and death, I sing to you now =]

and death/
useless scrap metal

[=councilor, elder, avoider of peace=]

useless scrap metal /
to soar

[=sister=]

[—independent mining is strictly prohibited. Offenders will be punished according to ISMMG Corporation’s penal code, article XTS–z–19.—]

[=I come, I come=]

(Editors’ Note: “archival testimony fragments / minersong” is read by C. S. E. Cooney in the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, Episode 4.)

© 2015 by Rose Lemberg