LAST RIGHTS

By Kendall Evans

Wrap me up in a big bright white sheet
As we sail the far reach
To peninsular extensions of the galaxy
Throw my unknowing corpse overboard

Toss me past the stern bannisters
Into the wake of our fierce fusion flames
Tempest-tossed, my sacred remains
Disintegrating into interstellar dust

Let me drift forever in the deep-space void
Watching sparkling comets spin past
Dreaming dreams of cosmic alternatives
And coronal mass ejections, oblivious

& Eternal

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MY FRIEND LUCAN

By Kendall Evans

No, this is not a sequel / To that ages old TV show / “My Friend Flicka”
This is all about Lucan / But then, who or what / Is Lucan?
Scientists would have you believe / He or it is a mere theoretical concept
A metaphor / Or construct / Which they invented / But the reality

Is far more complex / For the acronym L.U.C.A.N. / Standing for “Last Universal
Common Ancestor” / However, he truth is / Lucan is very much alive
And well / And a friend of mine / He lives with me in my apartment / Not at all
A  pet, but a close amigo / I paid a fortune / To construct for Lucan

A fish tank / 12 ft wide and 6 ft high / 4 ft from the tank’s front to back
Since he is a creature /  Of both the land and the water / there are rocky ledges
Built at the left / And the right of the tank / He swims around freely
Contentedly /  Languorously / And because he belongs to the Plant Kingdom

As well as the Animal Kingdom / He can grow roots / Reminiscent
Of tentacles / And adhere / To the rocky ledges / Within the tank 
Not a concept / Nor a metaphor at all / He is as real / As you or me
But only I know this / And I am making a small fortune / Writing

Science articles / About what he or it would be like / If he truly existed
Which he does / And as I have said / We are the best of friends
He has informed me / this creature / Of a unique species
Who possesses a remarkable / Telepathic communication ability

That he is immortal / Which will also blow the minds / Of the scientists
Once it is revealed / And since Lucan will live forever / And then some
We can be only transient / Temporary friends / And eventually
I will be forced / To find / a new and younger / Caretaker for Lucan

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Kendall Evans, trollbridg@hotmail.com, wrote BP #58’s “Chupacabra, Chupacabra” (+BP #54’s “The Coronation of the New Gods” play excerpt, the VISHNU play excerpt for BP #53, and the poems: “Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll,” “Other Selves,” “In Shadows Drenched ,” “The Darkness,” “The Teeth of the Rose,” “Blood in the Mist,” and “If I Bring You Crimson Flowers” for BP earlier). A frequent BP contributor, he has had more than 200 poems in such publications as Asimov’s, Bare Bone Anthology, Dreams and Nightmares, Fantastic, Flesh and Blood, Illumen, Mythic Delirium, Space and Time, and Weird Tales. His chapbooks include Poetry Red-Shifted in the Eyes of a Dragon and (with David Kopaska-Merkel) Separate Destinations. Among his many other prizes, he and David won the 2006 best long science fiction poem Rhysling Award with “The Tin Men.” “In The Astronaut Asylum” by Kendall Evans and Samantha Henderson won the 2010 Rhysling Award for the best long science fiction poem of the year. The poem first appeared in Mythic Delirium. The titles of his four dramas in The Ganymede Ring Cycle include: “The Mermaidens of Ceres,” “Battle Dance of the Valkyrie,” “Sieglinda’s Journey to the Stars,” and “The Rings of Ganymede.”