Principal Damage

[evilrooster]

The cloning table holds me half-reclined
And wraps the scanning visor round my head,
Recording me. I try to clear my mind,
But grief remains. My alter self is dead.
A roadside bomb went off; his whole squad died.
Like all the other soldiers grown before
From memories and tissue I've supplied,
He died. As will the next, and many more.
I knew that he was gone before the call—
I felt the bomb explode, and tasted blood.
I can't explain, but I've died with them all,
Been burned and shot, been stabbed and drowned in mud.
Sometimes I wish that I were just a clone
So when I die, I die just once, alone.

Originally sent to Asimov Magazine; posted on Making Light after rejection.

Comments

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Nice to see this one again, I really love it. You know, while it's true that SF mags don't publish much poetry, it isn't necessarily true that poetry magazines won't publish SF. Maybe you should try subbing to the lit side of the market...?

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I don't believe they didn't publish this. It's a lot better than most of theirs.

[pedanther]

...I have only just now got the joke in the title.

I can be quite slow, sometimes.


-- Paul A.