the tree and the dust 2

the ring of velveteen robots stared with perfect menace at the girl in tattered night cloths, torn bloody with mud, as she stepped toward them swung about by the incredibly old man, in the black and silver spacesuit,

behind this phalanx sitting on the horizon~inflamed lay the destroyed carcass of a spaceship, heaving in broiling fire, while the sickle like slice of moon shimmers

the girl holds her arms across her chest and breaths great plumes of steam, and gasps~

i can't breathe

what happened to the ship ?

the old man shakes the words out of his mouth, like dust, teeth, ice and gravel~

his back toward her, his shoulders dropped, facing the machines, who merely shrug and stand there,

they don't speak move aside,or lower their weapons and the girl in night cloths turns to run,

she doesn't want to see anymore horror,

runs into the arms of a robot, who holds her wrist and subdues her,

it's face a smooth ovoid of black, two bumps at the sides, as if it wore a mask pressing down on the ears, and sown into the void of a face sunk a few centimeters two glittery jewels in silver, blue and topaz

she is lead to the side of the old man~ shivering as the cold hits her, the air fails to fill her blood, she is dying~ this planet is not a home for feral humans

she coughs and drops to her knee, beside the man who stares at the corpses~ steaming in the night

the snow and the ice splashed in blood, droplets the size of fists, the bodies lay in crater, upon a mattress of cloaks,

twin uniformed women vivisected~splashed about,

holding the creche protectively where the pink fungus covered infant squirms and gurgles~ the umbilical laced up into a limbless burning torso

what happened to the mother ? the girl hears the old man cry, as he falls toward the baby, she doesn't hear anyone speak as in answer, but she knew~ the creature.

whispered~

this is not a fairly tale

this is blood