M Charactered
And in the glare Mu Cephei roils
As if to dare armed craft to draw near
Or to deter steel souls from rare risk
Which is the high dream I Kalki chose
So now I boost thrust hard and arc close
And soon the Class M stellar red disk
Becomes a vast fire pearl with no peer
Reward and long sought prize for the loyal.
And I reflect on seeing those flares
That though my sign is always the K
The star has caught my character’s fire
In its regalia blazing a chart
From spiral arm to galaxy heart
A racemate’s flame that burns ever higher
Throughout all space, the infinite way
Throughout all time, an infinite prayer.
Now periastron grants the recoil
The slingshot path we need, so we veer
Each fierce arch of garnet and rose
Bestowing heat as dharma and kiss
And our return to team base is brisk
While the photonic current still blows
And to all men my name is revered
The Delta K exalted and royal.
The Red Sky Crystal
Yesterday’s menace awaits fate
Waits for the crystal’s approach
Scarlet as garnet and old scars
Tasked to bring freedom at last
Facetted high in the night sky
Facetted far above clefts
Summoning horrors to hard death
Death for that threat from the stars.
Thousands of years have elapsed now
Now I return as Kalki
Sixteen and wild as a quasar
Crested with Delta and K
Galaxies flare at my first glance
Galaxies shatter and fade
Fade to a chaos of lost thought
Thought that explodes from afar.
Roseate prism of hot wrath
Wrathful oracle of awe
Red as a laser to burn foes
Claret its searing display
Gaze with acclaim from the shadows
Gaze with increasing assent
Know that all pleas are a faint cry
Know that that quartz is no rose.
Racing the Supernova
Engines idling, I check the crew
Neutrino flux and the port view
And then with a wild joy I start our glide
And all my craft’s dials exalt the tide
The light a gilt blade, the sword’s hilt
Which at my command cleaves space in two.
Thrust increases to seven g’s
I think of metals, the gold sea
That is the obscure supernova core
Beyond the rays’ edge, the Kalide door
Serenely tossed, surging heat lost
As within it sets hot neutrons free.
Beams like kyanite crystals blaze
The sky an aquamarine haze
And it is the blueshift which fires our will
Away from star blasts, the ion spill
Accrued by fierce suns of Type II
And so we proceed on, spirits raised.
Danger passing I check the gauge
That warns of plasma, the star’s rage
Which isn’t a threat now that I Kalki
Have as a grand plan to roam carefree
To heed the storm’s course with each deed
Within my elite fleet, every stage.
Selves’ Azon
Argon lasers primed, I relax and feel that thrill
Soon my beams will guide azon might to all those rocks
Agon tiffs between asteroids and regal will:
Stellar lanes will flare, gifting distant worlds the shock!
Orange starshells blaze, sensors show the zone I’ve earned
Passage smashed through dust, farness’ glass reveals the way
Distant suns and men beckon now, and they have learned
Praise is due to those blessed to raise the sign of K.
Solar System snarls angle wide compared to these
Frozen goals were far fragments dashed on rifts so wide
Months would pass, or more, gashing gulfs in wildness’ seas
Triumph surged as I angered fate and rode the tide.
May my other selves, Tower-far, be just as proud!
I am Prime in space, One in time, but they are kin
Sons who strode from bright Sagittarius, unbowed
Sometimes great we fuse, then we split; always I win.
Vishnu’s son I wait patiently for space to clear.
Every blast a flag, topaz-hot, proclaims my gain.
Recollections pause far from me at thoughts of pain:
Shiva’s son, I sear; soon I’ll soar. I feel no fear.
Tower Driverzone
Our craft heeds the Tower, prime node rising central
White finned before the Door, hero’s Tor
Vast cold cloud pleroma, moonstone-blue environ
Pale wisps hail the perished; frozen lives propel us
Cast down souls’ bestowal, each name now forgotten.
Praise the river’s dark-veined plumes, our cadence!
Praise the desire driving us to seek!
Praise the ruling diagonal sequence!
Gatemen of the great K our ships soar on the teal sea
Tau warriors owed phlogiston, being’s azure roof
Zone won on the tide, ferried ranks vizored from bad signs
As now and through all time we chant mantras of wild youth
Firethorns of the last age and God, infinite Kalki.
Daniel King: I am an Australian same-sex oriented writer, with a strong interest in Hinduism (particularly pertaining to Kalki, the 10th and final avatar of Vishnu, the Preserver, incarnating now and forever together with Shiva, the Destroyer), mysticism in general, and astronomy. As a surfer, I am also strongly influenced by marine imagery.