{"id":1179,"date":"2016-08-15T08:35:46","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T15:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=1179"},"modified":"2016-08-13T08:55:34","modified_gmt":"2016-08-13T15:55:34","slug":"d-day-by-christina-sng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=1179","title":{"rendered":"D-Day by Christina Sng"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Makasiinit_tulessa\"<\/p>\n

I prepared them for D-Day
\nFrom the time they were born–
\nThe day we had to flee.<\/p>\n

The fire began in the horizon,
\nAt 3am one summer night
\nBeneath the rising blood moon.<\/p>\n

It devoured house after house,
\nTheir inhabitants incinerated
\nBefore they could scream.<\/p>\n

Soon an orange glow flickered
\nFrom beneath the bedroom door.
\nSmoke flooded in like dry ice,<\/p>\n

The scent unmistakable,
\nWaking me up
\nFrom a restless slumber.<\/p>\n

I swiftly opened the windows
\nAs Jack sped to the bathroom
\nTo wet three towels.<\/p>\n

Ava woke up, her eyes bleary.
\nI tied a rope around her waist
\nAnd lowered her like we practiced.<\/p>\n

Smoke began to fill the room,
\nLooming like an angry fog monster,
\nSwirling around my son<\/p>\n

As he helped me hold the rope.
\nAva reached the ground, untied herself
\nAnd beckoned us to hurry,<\/p>\n

Sirens of a fire engine
\nSilent and absent as
\nThe wind that night.<\/p>\n

I lowered Jack next.
\nHe gave me the thumbs up
\nAs he reached the ground<\/p>\n

And quickly untied the knots,
\nMouthing the words,
\n“Hurry, Mom!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I hoped the window frame would hold.
\nUsing the rope as a secondary support,
\nI rappelled down the roof<\/p>\n

And leapt off the parapet.
\nThe children were waiting,
\nClutching me tight as we hastened<\/p>\n

To our car parked on the street.
\nHouses exploded on both sides of us.
\n“It has begun,” Jack said solemnly.<\/p>\n

I nodded, one eye on little Ava
\nHugging her favorite stuffed cat whom
\nShe somehow managed to smuggle along.<\/p>\n

The spaceship was where we left it,
\nBut we needed to be in our own form
\nTo pilot it.<\/p>\n

We hyperventilated
\nTill our human skin shed,
\nOur thick corrugated hides shook<\/p>\n

And stretched
\nFrom years of compression.
\nJack grinned, happy to be himself again.<\/p>\n

I placed my hoof on the panel
\nAs the ship sighed and started.
\nWe had to hurry.<\/p>\n

The Exterminators had found us,
\nThe ones who destroyed our planet.
\nWe were the last of our kind,<\/p>\n

And they would not rest
\nTill every living thing
\nWas scorched and dead.<\/p>\n

Our water-fuelled ship achieved lightspeed.
\nWe would find another planet to hide in,
\nTo grow and survive.<\/p>\n

By then, the eggs would all be hatched,
\nAnd we could finally train an army
\nTo fight back.<\/p>\n

Little Ava cradled her stuffed cat
\nWith her twin hooves.
\nShe lay back<\/p>\n

And softly meowed to her toy.
\nOne more language learned.
\nOne more planet lost.<\/p>\n

Photo by Petteri Sulonen – http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photo_zoom.gne?id=140957047&size=l, CC BY 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=760246<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I prepared them for D-Day From the time they were born– The day we had to flee. The fire began in the horizon, At 3am one summer night Beneath the rising blood moon. It devoured house after house, Their inhabitants incinerated Before they could scream. Soon an orange glow flickered From beneath the bedroom door. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1181,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions\/1181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}