Sunday, October 26, 2008

Science Fiction



The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
—for Michael Rennie

The day the earth stood still—that’s when one world ended—and another world began—I fell down on my knees—I fell in love with him—I fell in love with michael rennie!!!—oh honey the earth stood still—talk about klaatu barada nikto!!!—hmmm-hmmm—that fateful day the earth stood still—that’s the day the world ended for me—that’s the day my heart stood still along with everything else—that strange still afternoon I got to know mister klaatu!!!—suddenly we were stuck in that elevator—michael renee, patricia neal and me standing there in the dark—stuck in that dark moody elevator for a whole long hour—there in historic

picturesque downtown washington dc!!!—michael turned to patricia and asked her what time it was—he nodded and said something about gort—I had no idea the whole city had stopped still—all I knew was my heart felt so alien and strange—I’d never fallen in love with a handsome alien before—so tall and calm and debonair—no wonder hugh marlowe was jealous—miss marlowe was such a greedy thing—all she wanted was those lovely expensive intergalactic pearls—so there we were in the dark elevator all alone and nothing to do—good golly miss molly— what’s a girl to do?—patricia was scared but I wasn’t—I’d been in

worse predicaments—dark cramped spaces didn’t bother me—in fact it was all rather romantic and intimate—I kept feeling these strange vibes—emanating from michael rennie’s crotch—finally I couldn’t help myself any longer—I was weak and down there on my knees anyway—and michael didn’t say no—so I did what no other earthboy had done before—I went down on a visitor from outer space—it was truly an otherworldly experience—oh baby interstellar oral intercourse!!!—there’s nothing quite like it—poor patricia neal—oh how jealous she got there in the dark—fuming for a whole hour the poor thing—hearing it but not seeing it—

wanting it but afraid to reach out and let her fingers do the walking—oh she was so green with jealousy she glowed chartreuse in the dark!!!—I offered to share klaatu with her but she wasn’t into ménage-a-trois—although a nice slow fuck was just what she needed—I didn’t care though—I was curious about alien sex—so I took my time with klaatu—and klaatu took his time with me—he was curious about earthboys like me—he said there were worlds out there with nothing but boys living there—thousands of boy planets and ancient adolescent suns—ephebic cities that would make my eyes bulge—klaatu told me these things like they were

vacation spots he’d visit now and then—telling me someday I’d get to go there too—all of this somehow calmed me down in ways that I’d never known before—for so long I thought I was the only gay boy in the universe—the only gay boy in the beltway—it was so lonely feeling closeted and alone that way—and so to imagine vast worlds out there waiting for me—strange beautiful worlds full of boys in love with each other—delicate eden worlds with lavender moons and nipple-pink sunsets—the kind of moons and sunsets I dreamed about at night alone in bed—klaatu even told me about a special spaceship from a faraway spiral galaxy full of

intergalactic sugar daddies—cruising the milky way for cute guys just like me—all in good time klaatu assured me—the universe needed boys too he said—there was a vast yin-yang dwarf star sleeping deep inside me—someday it would wake up and go super-nova in a very strange way—it was timed right down to the split second of a chromosome minute—way into the future that was really here and now—except I just didn’t know it he said and smiled—klaatu said it the way he always said things—I don’t know how to describe it—it was more like a deja vu wink out of time—making me grateful for being there with him—for being

with him when he stopped the world—he said he stopped it just for me, baby boy—but I knew there were other reasons—I wasn’t the center of the universe—even though he made me feel that way—what a lucky coincidence I thought—klaatu choosing my rooming house to stay in for awhile—to get to know earth people and why we were having problems—how fitting that day that the whole world would stop around me—stopped dead in its tracks like never before—like that day that jar in tennessee stopped time—and gathered around it all the forest and fields and birds and me—turning the unruly sprawling country quotidian into a smooth

ancient vase of time—that was the day time stopped for me—that was the day time and space collapsed and oozed through a crack in the world egg—that was the day I fell in love with a man from another world—that was the day one world ended and another world began—if only klaatu would whisk me away from planet earth—maybe he’d make me immortal like him—surely klaatu and gort knew all about those secret intergalactic things—after all hadn’t gort brought klaatu back to life after he died—melting the brick wall with his laser beam—gently picking him up and taking him back to the ship—up into the spiral winding spaceship from

another world—wasn’t that how strange superscience worked?—resurrecting dead gods back again into time—by stopping the world and moving through them—through portals and quiet passageways—intersections older than rome—older than athens and brooklyn—from one side into the other—surely gort could do the same for me—michael rennie showing me the interior of the spaceship—so modern and streamlined and art deco inside—I wanted him to take me away from earth right then—both of us cruising the universe forever and ever—just think of all the good times we could have in the miraculous milky way!!!—and those

sullen moody magellanic cloudy galaxies—waiting way out there just for us—where super novas slowly expanded for millions of years—blowing spectral neon cloud stuff out into the emptiness of space and time—maybe even falling in love with some cute krell boy—like me near childhood’s end—those dark monsters of the id didn’t scare me—as long as klaatu was with me—getting to know just how forbidden that forbidden planet really could get—finding myself again and again—in the arms of strange boys from other worlds—but gort got jealous—it was just awful—ever been stalked by a butchy darth vader robot from a dark mean star?—

well, it wasn’t funny, honey—even if he was kinda slouchy and slow—that beam of his was pure murder—it wiped out my condo and couple of taxis—plus a dozen local sleazy beltway gay bars—it was just awful—potomac cyborg-sex sucks—the beltway got zapped bad!!!—everything stopped!!!—things that were invisible suddenly became visible—I could see this huge blue labyrinthine
swimming pool all around me—full of borges worlds within worlds—a fabulous mise en scene of many worlds all at once—klaatu telling me once that earth was very ancient—an ancient seaport millions of years old—complex as a nautilus shell forever

winding and wrapping downward into itself—it was all very mind-boggling for a little chicken like me—klaatu smiled and said it was okay—in a couple of thousand years I’d get used to it—then he’d come back and take me to a special garden of a thousand worlds—a sunken garden world like no other—where I’d meet a boy who was my doppelganger—a kid very ancient and asleep—waiting for me to show up—when I was mature enough to understand—the full immensity of the gift given to me—would become known to me then—and why I was on earth now as well—klaatu chiding gort and telling him to leave me alone—there were a dozen wars

going on inside earth at that very moment—klaatu and gort had business to take care of—the spaceship was really a portal vortex—klaatu said goodbye—telling me not to be scared—even though the sky would come crashing down—which it did when he left—days speeded up and went whizzing by—there was not time for the earth to stand still again for me—hormonal things crowded in on me—jaded guys in big spaceships way up there in orbit— began zooming over wal-mart and kentucky fried chicken—strange new martian ruins—announced in the daily headlines—ancient civilizations falling thru time-portals in my closet—oh dear

me lions and tigers and bears oh my!!!—there was no reason to get excited—multiple universes were familiar as fairy tales—then there was the rings of saturn motorcycle gang—those ruthless scorpio vandals of the void—there was no time for couch potato ennui anymore—no time for lazy-boy afternoons watching the sci-fi channel for fun—no time anymore for those nostalgic snake pit drive-in sci-fi movies out of the fifties—oh honey watch out for attack of the crab monsters!!!—oh dear me not the blob again!!!—oh baby, it’s not the thing!!!—and the creature from the black lagoon!!!—those long sultry summer bijou matinees!!!—up in the

red-velvet darkness—the brass-railing balcony with ronnie—letting me squeeze him tight—when bomba came sailing down—down thru the wild jungle forest—on long vines stretching from chicken heaven—swinging down into my waiting arms!!!—cruising sad lonely space-docks at night—cruising young sailorboys—cute butchy starship troopers—sullen adolescent sunsets—moody battleship galactica boyz…

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