The Haunted Computer and the Android Pope. Ray Bradbury

burn and gyre,

      Only the bright beasts’ skins and restless bones bed here,

      And lost the fire.

      O, Phoenix, rub thy bones,

      No more suspire!

      Flint souls, strike mind against wild mind.

      Return! Be born of spent desire.

      Bright burn. Bright burn!

      O mighty God’s voice, shorn,

      Give shout next Easter morn. Be born!

      (Our prayer calls you to life.)

      Reborn of fire!

      3

      Abandon in Place.

      So the sign says, so the words go.

      The show is spent, the fire-walkers gone,

      And gone the glow at dawn.

      This day? No rockets rise like thunder.

      The wonder still remains

      In meadows where mound-dwellers not so long ago

      Envied the birds, the untouched stars,

      And let their touching envy grow.

      Machineries stir here with falls of rust;

      The lust for space still echoes

      In the birds that circle lost in mourning cries

      Repeating shouts of crowds long-spent

      Whose aching shook the skies.

      The sea moves down the shore

      In wave on wave full-whispering,

      No more. No more.

      When will the harvesters return

      To gather further wonders as a fuel

      And let them burn?

      How soon will all of Earth mob round, come here once more

      To stop the night,

      Put doubt away for good with rocket light?

      O soon, O let that day be soon

      When midnight blossoms with grand ships

      As bright and high as noon.

      Prepare the meadows, birds, and mounds,

      Old ghosts of rocketmen, arise.

      Fling up your ships, your souls, your flesh, your blood,

      Your blinding dreams

      To fill, refill, and fill again

      Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’s

      Promised and re-promised

      Skies.

The Great Man Speaks

       (famous last words)

      The famous one was there

      Like a statue put out upon our loving green.

      His wife was mean and talked a lot,

      The air was hot with all her talking

      Chalking out a line and running along

      Her mindless song filled up our ears.

      We looked at him. Our mouths were grim.