WHAT I HEARD WAS A RUMOR

Meghan Kemp-Gee

 

 

that you left your friends a folded treasure map directing them where to look next, left this scene unfolding in the space between the looping lines you drew to demarcate a city, island, or a continent. Strictly speaking, in the colonies post-colony we know it’s impossible to know for certain until you get your boots on the ground.

You traced our dotted path in ink in colors that exactly indicate how we will find what’s lost forever, discover it just as an unmarked cruiser or eighteen wheeler drifts left into the passing lane. You wrote Here Be Dragons on the blank parts dammed and flooded by filthy long-toothed rodents. Years later, we’ll unearth this tattered document. We’ll display it in a bright glassy museum case in London along with a rough translation:

Dear Sirs,

I don’t like it here. The winters are too cold. I’m tired of the food and the sand in my boots. I don’t want to go to war with Russia. I request an increased departmental budget, a lateral transfer. I want to go home, I demand an explanation. I’ve heard outrageous rumors about the future, I’m afraid of the local wildlife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meghan Kemp-Gee lives somewhere between Vancouver BC and Fredericton NB. She writes poetry, comics, and scripts of all kinds. She co-created the webcomics Contested Strip and Space Heroines of El-Andoo, and her short comics have appeared in numerous anthologies. Her poetry has recently appeared in Copper Nickel, Rising Phoenix Review, Tincture, Stone of Madness, Altadena Poetry Review, Anomaly, and Rejection Letters. She also teaches composition and plays ultimate frisbee. You can find her on Twitter @MadMollGreen.