quoting Matt Langley
"set out from color"
but found a boundary
at best, a fallen fence
at worst, weeds grown
at heart,
in our hands
there stood difference
the same under
a dive, a swim,
a pocket full
of flailing house keys
pairs of prankster
car keys we didn't hide
well enough
but we went far
from a certain date,
we may never—
made it
look shiny, past dents
spit and polish,
all the troubles
smearing by
against a fence but maybe
time, no guards to say,
step there, that's
the wrong way
hoarse with certainty
I knew—
I know
but where we started
a shoulder overlooked
the pattern we see,
"set out from color."
The countdown had stalled at 'T' minus 69 seconds when Desiree, the first
female ape to go up in space, winked at me slyly and pouted her thick,
rubbery lips unmistakably -- the first of many such advances during what
would prove to be the longest, and most memorable, space voyage of my
career.
-- Winning sentence, 1985 Bulwer-Lytton bad fiction contest.
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