Buttons and Soap
by Josh Pearce
out of some
numbered (stitching
their eyes) life comes our
(with railroad ties)
buttons and soap
some war crime
looking (i can only pray that
my extinction) to the stars
as diesel treads close in
(fuels some future machine)
some gleaming white
island overhead (to
reach new worlds)
colonized with (some
rocket of babel)
disposable bodies
the tracks don’t end
at the camp (continuing
on to) gates
(the doors of heaven)
some angel’s ladder
made of bones
out of some
sputnik skull
come our
moonshot dreams.
Josh Pearce has published more than 200 stories, reviews, and poems in a wide variety of magazines, including Analog, Asimov’s, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Bourbon Penn, Cast of Wonders, Clarkesworld, Diabolical Plots, Kaleidotrope, Locus, Nature, On Spec, Weird Horror, and elsewhere. Find more of his writing at fictionaljosh.com. One time, Ken Jennings signed his chest.
