TWENTY-EIGHT: Imagination Plague

Strange

            I can’t think

            Stranger

            I can’t figure

            I’m beginning to sink

            Strangest

            Plague

            Ever

Quiet

Conspiracy?

Caution

Conspiracy?

Can’t imagination anymore

Conspiracy?

How to tell a new story, I forgot!

Stop

Inventor

Stop

Creators

Stop

Sentient Imaginations

Never filled more

Continents to Pantaganents

Only One Angry Ocean

Yes!

It happened over-night

No one could take flight

            In the middle of it

            Dark, full of rest

            Incomparable beauty

            Afriaribe, the first

            She continued to sing about the formation of all the continents back into the Pangaea and into the Six Pantaganents until she got to ours, the last Pantaganent, Canadi.

           

            Last, no never agree to least

            Large and green and cold

            Find your home

            Immigrant from far and wide

            Canadi, oh Canadi mine!   

             

There was thunderous applause that caused Arous to pause.  I could feel her shock; she hadn’t expected that.

Then Mekko began his monologue, a narration of the song Arous had just sung.  He became the Leader of the World, President of the United Nations.  Poisajos swarmed around him.  Those that didn’t make up the background made up his furniture. He sat at a large desk in an office. He was talking to a figure coming out of an IDE-Wall.  A conversation that was made famous by history books for generations.

“Let me get this straight. Africa split right in two. It’s northern half pushed into the Gulf and joined the Middle East. Its southern half floated southeast to meet up Australia.  India is now connected to Australia? Good heavens! England merged with the country of France taking Ireland with them. The French have never liked the English, though no one can quite remember why; the French retreated to the south. I bet the Germans are happy.  The Galician’s in Spain stayed right where they sat and were joined by the Gaelic’s that lived in Ireland. It was smart for Japan and Hawaii to join forces with what are they calling it? Seriously? Down Under was all they could come up with? China is still intact. Good. China will run Euraja now that India is allied with the Aussies. The tail of South America broke out and curled around.  Didn’t someone say the annual Drug Lords and Smugglers of the Americas was meeting in Uruguay?  The hotel they were at is missing? This may be the best decade for South America, yet. Antarctica is still Antarctica.  I guess nothing good changes. So to sum up, you’re saying that all seven continents have merged – more or less – separated by small seas, rivers more like, and surrounded by one large, angry ocean? Great.  I think I can handle this.  Get the Peacekeepers mobilized and ready to run each continent.”

Everyone rolled with laughter.  It was absurd because he didn’t handle it and the peacekeepers were always portrayed as jokes: keystone cops.  Soon after, Peacekeepers were traded for Spartan Guard.  Every Pangeation had them.  Each Pantaganent was orgainized around one large city.  Spread over each Pantaganent was several Dodecagons.  A Dodecagon was twelve small cities or villages surrounding centers of commerce.  A Dodecagon could be several hundred miles across but usually less than 500.  Arous continued to sing.

Quiet

Conspiracy?

Caution

Conspiracy?

Can’t imagination anymore

Conspiracy?

How to tell a new story, I forgot!

Stop

Inventor

Stop

Creators

Stop

Sentient Imaginations

Never filled more

Imagination often denied

Imagination once coveted has now died

Beings can’t live without imagination

Diofe, Diofe

Remember Beings are but small

Creator Merciful, relent!

Don’t allow the Imagination Plague

To carry the Beings Pall!

Diofe says:

“Imagine enough to keep alive

No more scheming, dreaming to grab a prize

But previous imagination wealth

Rescinded and denied!”

Changes

No screams

Manages

No more dreams

Roll blackout roll

Bring us back to back

Minds are sick

Dust covers shelves

For the worst plague yet

The plague of no imagination

World-wide de-electricity

Wind turbines

Nothing but blowing in the wind

Water turbines

Nothing but catching fish

Solar panels

No more spark

Technology absconds

Advancement laid-off

Cashed her check

Flew to Mars

No postcard

No coming back

Mekko, Efahava and Arous played inventors staring at inventions, writers staring at manuscripts mid-story.  Nothing was finished.  The only creative options that remained were retelling of old stories and reinvention of old ideas.

The weight of the sorrow of the Imagination Plague hadn’t died in all these years.  The last remarkable stories and inventions from hundreds of years ago served as a constant reminder that something was lost.

But then Arous began to sing about what was gained.