AMERIKA IN THE SKY (IN MEMORIAM)

 

I remember that day starting off ordinarily enough, there I was playing as usual with some friends in the open field not that far from home, the sky azure with nary a cloud blighting its face…

The lay of the land is so perfectly flat that we can see unencumbered all the way to the horizon. A strange sensation grips me that the sky is a giant snow globe surrounding and enveloping me in its grasp, which makes me feel slightly queasy and claustrophobic. I feel trapped by this impenetrable glass bowl sky and have the strong urge to smash its walls and break free from the eternal imprisonment that it has me and the whole world under.

As the day proceeds, the heavens rotate slowly around their axis and then towards mid-morning something very odd catches my eye on the eastern horizon. It is something that I never have seen in the sky before but there it is before me, slowly arising from beneath the edge of the earth.  By some incomprehensible process, the whole of the continent of North America has somehow become attached to the celestial sphere and it is now being carried along by the turning of the heavens. We can clearly see its unmistakable shape and the features of the land, the whiteness of Alaska, the mighty rivers, the mountain chains, the major cities, the wheat fields, the forests.

If I felt claustrophobic before and hemmed in by the sky above me, now those sensations are so much worse given there's a whole continent hanging right over our heads.

At first, while the continent is still at a shallow angle in the sky, the North American people seem to be enjoying their unique experience, smiling, laughing and some even waving to us down below.

But as the heavens continue their inexorable turning and the continent slowly approaches the celestial zenith, the fun and the mirth turns to panic.

At midday the continent reaches the highest point in the sky, hanging precisely upside down. The people are now in their most precarious position, desperately trying to hold onto anything that is firmly rooted in the ground, any moorings whatsoever, to blades of grass, even to soil itself. Even when they completely lose all grip on land, still they hopelessly attempt to find some protuberance in the fabric of the sky that they can hold onto, to save themselves from this terrible disaster, to give themselves just one more instant of life, just one more instant of stability. Oh the humanity, dropping like ants from their once secure abodes that have now turned treacherously against them. But what can one do when your whole world has literally been turned upside down?

The height from which they fall is so great that we can not even see where they land. Curiously, instead of their bodies looming larger and larger in our field of vision as they approach the ground, they become fainter and smaller still, until disappearing from sight completely. Even more curiously, after a certain stretch of time, they suddenly re-appear, only now they are not their usual corporeal three-dimensional selves but rather they've turned into life-sized two-dimensional monochrome cardboard cutouts of themselves. As we watch these cardboard figures near the ground another incredible metamorphosis takes place and the cutouts change into small snapshot photos of those same people. These photos shower upon us like torrential rain. Even though in a daze, I instinctively pick some of them up and see in these snapshots the lost souls as they appeared in happier times, with their family, friends, pets, the way that they like to be remembered, and not how they looked in their desperate final moments.  

As the continent remains in the apex of the sky, buildings' foundations start to loosen, roots of plants are no longer able to cling to the soil, the once mighty rivers empty their banks in cataclysmic downpour of unprecedented proportions. Finally, the earth itself begins to lose its compactness and adhesiveness, dripping down in small spurts first and then in great lumps. Here and there, the liquid magma substratum is peeking through the locations where all of the continental crust has fallen off.

As the whole continent continues to break up, a colossal downpour of bodies, concrete, trees, mud, water, cars, houses, rock, soil all mixed up together into a terrible blend threatens to engulf the world below and destroy our lives too.

Thankfully, some clouds appear and block these scenes of pure horror but then they quickly disperse and again we are unable to look away, unable to avert our gaze from the largest catastrophe that has ever been witnessed by the human eye. But who am I, a small boy, to watch these scenes of suffering so terrifying that even Death Itself turns its bony face away in fright? Oh the horror, the horror of it all, surely this day will live forever in infamy!

After an interminable span of time, the continent begins to move away from the zenith. We can see that a fortunate few have somehow managed to survive the nearly total destruction of the landscape of North America and they are approaching the horizon and the security of the ground again. Thank goodness they now will be able to descend safely and be lauded as heroes, as survivors of the most terrible journey that any human being has ever had to go through.

Alas, that is not to be, and our hopes are proven to be woefully inaccurate. For when this god-forsaken, ill-fated, star-crossed continent reaches the horizon again, it collides sharply with the stubborn, unyielding ground that is already there and a catastrophe even worse than the one we witnessed earlier in the day begins to unfold before our terrified eyes.

In the far horizon, an inexorable process is taking place as two continents attempt to occupy the same location at the same time and one of them has to lose out. Northern Canada and Alaska are the first to go, bit by bit they are torn apart as the stationary earth refuses to shift and stands firm its ground and those remaining alive that we thought would be the lucky survivors are crushed to dust.   

We cannot help but rush to their aid, to try to save at least some lives. Suddenly we halt as we realize that the horizon is an illusory point in the distance that keeps receding further and further as you walk towards it and so we never would be able to reach those unfortunate few.

By now, more than half the continent has been ground into fine powder as the merciless process continues without ceasing. The major metropolises of the United States, the founts of so much knowledge, art, music, creative energy, are being pulverized into nothingness, never before has there been destruction on such a thoroughly unmitigated scale. Icy pieces of Alaska intermingle with the glassy shards of New York City and with bits of tinsel of Los Angeles. Would it ever be possible to reconstruct America from these clouds of dust?  Civilizations, cities, entire countries have been rebuilt before from ruins, but this is annihilation of an entirely different nature, from which there's surely no coming back.  

"Well, there goes the New World", I think wistfully  "and I never did get to visit it, although just last year I came so close to going there. No longer will we have America in our lives, no more remains of that cultural centre of the world from which we get all of our TV programs. It is all gone in the most cruel and terrible fashion right before our very eyes. And yet, its ashes and dust will settle all over the world, infusing every cell of the remaining world.  Forever more it will provide fertilization for the world to go on growing and progressing the way America once did and we will be able to proudly say that we all now have America in our very souls."

Reviews

[Angel Bird]

Maybe I'm very mistaken, but the first thing that came to mind at the beginning of your story was President Bush's disastrous politics, and slowly it metamorphosed into 9/11 to me til the very end. To me it seems that you here wrote metaphorically speaking about how all continents looked up at the great, and filled with greatness and all possibilities land of America ... and then since Bush came into office, he and his politics literally managed so everything went down the tubes and crumbled down to only a pile of ashes ...
Ok that's my very own way of interpreting your write, if I'm wrong I hope you don't mind?

This is an excellent piece you've created here. All those many fantastic, but cruel images. An absolutely breathtaking fantasy piece. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Brilliant! Kudos!

[An owl on the moon]

Such a depth and richness to your words that shake the soul... Amazing movement in your phrases and metaphors. A magnificent work!!!!!!

[Antonio Valentino]

Interesting how at one point America was the last so called, Superpower, and for all intents and purposes, was the leader of the free world, for the lack of a better term. But then of course, we felt our need to expand, and try to bring, our way, of life to everyone else so that they could be happy and prosper, like us. Free trade, free technology, look the other way, while you stuff that money in our pockets. Well what has happened now? Has that whole theory backfired, or did the rest of the world simply catch up, and team up. In nature, the great white shark doesn't show the smaller sharks how to team up, and annihilate (sp?) it, that just wouldn't make sense right? I'm not smart enough to have the answers to such global issues, but one thing that we (Americans) also have is the right, and the freedom, to muck it all up just as bad if not worse, than any other nation... under god.

Like the Greeks, the Romans, and the meso-american civilizations before us, soon one day, we too, could be just another, historical ideal, in the sky.

Great job Boris!
Rich

[Jerri]

Firstly I want to say I am proudly American just as proudly Christian.

Secondly I want to say that I am terribly sad at the decline of our great nation; I believe we have finally spread ourselves too thin. We have gone into hock to see to the world's politics (not always at the world's request or it's betterment) I am a firm believer in "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." On that same note the decline of Christianity for the sake of face. We must really save ourselves before we can even think of saving others. Why would anyone or nation want help from a pauper or derelict? They wouldn't, they would see it as an affront.

I see the beginning as the road of excess. We flutter along happily to our demise until it is too late. A few chosen see what is occurring and save themselves. But alas, it is much too late even for them as we have strayed to far abroad and when we try to flee back to where we came we find someone has taken our place. As we force ourselves back we not only destroy the last of us but we take more down with us. In the whole scheme of things we just complete the cycle and pass our legacy onto others who will learn from it.

Very good~

[Joseph - Michael]

You know, I have to agree with you on how the America is like. I mean, the way things are going right now (gas prices, food prices, no jobs, and so on) they all are making people even more crazier than they used to be. Not to forget the weathers as well. I live in Michigan and it's so horririble right at this moment, the people around here (michigan) are far worse everywhere than what I remembered. It's like Detroit in every corners. There was quite a few times that I felt ashamed to be an "American"...

Anyway, it's a real well-written piece you've created to expose the truth like that, so it's all great there...

[[untitled]]

Everyone seems to see George W in this here tale of woe, but alas...not I. It is much more sinister and has remnants of the last days in its lines, which BTW are extremely well- written. The devastation and the photos of happier days and the annihalation of most of civilization is evident to me, but I'm probably wrong, which means I could be right. Whichever way I look at it...this is a world disaster told in a very unique style.
Nicely done...
Helen :-)

[ElJays Nicholas]

America presently, which is supposed to be a nation of laws and justice, has deviated from its created intent. It is easy to blame the Bush administration for all of the injustices which have occurred in the past eight years. The truth is, the American people elected Bush, not once, but twice. This says TONS about the mentality of the American people. I recall during the presidential election between Bush and Gore several people commenting to me, "I like Bush because he is someone who I'd like to have a beer with." I am not joking about this! And, I had heard it from at least three people that I can remember. Needless to say, I was astonished. The last thing I ever wanted was for someone like my beer-drinking neighbor to be the leader of the US. Now, those same people who made the previous statement are NOT voting for Barack Obama because "he is a black man," or "I don't like his middle name, Hussein." I do not put much stock into politics because they are just another belief system we have to deal with as human beings. However, I have been following the campaign of Obama, and he IS a man of common sense and good GLOBAL judgment, whereas John McCain not only wants to continue with the Bush's foreign policies in the Middle East, he actually wants to expand on them with more military might and non-communication with other countries. Republican/Democrat! It is all bullshit!! What I expect from my country is a more universal approach to humanitarian efforts. I am in the minority, unfortunately.

Sorry, Boris :)) I didn't mean to rant, but your story invoked this in me. I am a human being. I don't like to think of myself as an American, even though I was born in Ohio. My girlfriend lives in Bulgaria, and most of my friends live in different parts of the world. So, I know how people see America from different parts of the world, and I stand in TOTAL agreement with them. Your story is a powerful one!!!!!!!! After September 11 (which I now know was an inside job involving at least a few government officials [although, if you live in the US, you probably aren't aware of this fact]), the United States had the whole world behind them. Even Iran had offered condolences after the event. What the Bush administration has done is to alienate the US from the rest of the world. I have travelled extensively since then, and sometimes I say to people that I am from Scotland rather than the US, because the world is in such contempt of the US at the moment. And, I don't blame them one bit. I am in contempt of the US myself.

Boris? I love your writing and your sincere universal spirit!!!!!! I share this with you. And, for any real changes to occur in this world, there MUST be a mass change in global consciousness, in how each of us processes information and perception. I see this in your writing. It all begins within each of us. Hopefully, the next presidential administration of the US will hope to invoke a more universal consciousness. As far as what I've seen from Mr. Obama, he does this, at least for now. I hold to the hope that his politics NEVER outweighs his humanity. I hope this for everyone. We must obliterate these belief systems which hold us down universally: political, religious, nationalistic, racial, tribal, whatever!!! Thank you, Boris for helping to expose some things!! Much love and many blessings to you....

[[untitled]]

This is an exquisite piece. And yes, I can see a form of this happening. From dust to dust. But souls will take flight.

[DarkIriswriter]

This peice gives a insight of your views on americans and the glance of how much we take for granite everyday. It makes you realize how precious life is and how it disappear in one second.Kinda like the war which don't get me wrong the soldiers are fighting for our country but it is going to end up as a ww3 and that is a a terrible thought of mind.My political views on this peice is not limited, I think that our government is not taking the right procedures of helping the concern of the american people.The whole government is just a political system of people trying to get in to be the persident for their sake.Their not addressing other countries point of views and the people that are concerned int hose countries.For instance 9/11 the president had a clue of catching the terrorists and he didn't do anything about it.

Anyways good metaphors and word usage, love the vision I get as I read every sentence.great reflective peice!

sara

[Emily B]

Gosh, I don't quite know what to say to this one. I guess I should be glad I perished to "fertilize" the rest of you. Interesting stuff.

[Charles Sapp II]

A very interesting piece to say the least. My personal experiences while living abroad has allowed me to recognize the perception that the rest of the world has on America. My stint in China and their economical uprising and stakes to claim world domination in the near future is evident, especially with the decline of the US dollar.

Your writing has made me reflect on the points mentioned and dramatically paints a picture that I've imagined. I can only respond with how this poem relays to my present experiences and upon returning to America within the next 5 days. A job well done!