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Just Over a Year Ago

The city council decided to demolish
the relatively new centre of education.
The building was way beyond repair
because of dangerous subsidization.

A new housing estate would be built
upon stronger, deeper foundations.
Sited next to the river and park land
the estate would be a prime location.

The contract builders soon moved in
and marked out the entire site.
Services and infrastructure were in place
and the pile drivers worked day and night.

As the houses were being completed
they were sold and families moved in.
The last section of land was made ready
for the pile driving machine to begin.

The pile driver had been noisily working
when it hit something in the ground.
Piling was stopped while a meeting was held
for a solution to be quickly found.

It was decided to excavate the obstruction
and a team set about the task.
In no time they had arrived at the problem,
and they needed opinions fast.

A curved metal surface had been uncovered,
so the bomb squad and police were called in,
who immediately cordoned off the whole area,
but that didn’t stop the curious from seeing.

The bomb squad carefully viewed the object
and set about removing more soil and clay.
They estimated a size of huge proportions
and concluded, bombs weren’t made this way.

The bomb squad called for more security
as another outer cordon was put in place.
Sophisticated equipment was brought in
to determine just what had to be faced.

Without warning, an internal sound and vibration
sent their calmness into something more.
Stethoscopes were placed on the object’s surface,
but still the experts weren’t sure.

The army had now been brought in, for security,
and huge night lights had been erected on site.
The near by residents had all been evacuated
so no more twitching curtains were in sight.

The object was certainly huge and not solid,
its metal was as yet unknown.
Temperature senses began rising seriously,
this was now a danger zone.

A large area of the surface started glowing,
as the metal began to melt and spark.
Armed soldiers and the fire brigade stood ready
for any situation to start.

The sparks from the melting metal grew higher,
as something looked likely to come through.
Hair stood erect on necks and hearts were in mouths,
as the observers couldn’t believe this to be true.

In an instant everyone took a step backwards,
as they were amazed by a narrow white beam.
It’s force and power shot straight up into the sky
followed by another twelve or thirteen.

Most of the metal surface had now melted,
but the beams continued though narrowed.
It was possible to see down amongst the smoke
as the molten metal cooled, but still glowed.

By mid-day the fire brigade had cooled the area,
for the first army inspectors to go down.
All that was left was the emitter and the power beams,
and the debris of a once high-tech surround.

More people had gathered to see what was happening,
and insisted of being brought up to date,
but a statement wasn’t issued to the public,
and the press were waiting for a story to break.

The army began to increase the area’s security
by erecting a high fence all around,
but a press helicopter touched the edge of the beam,
and crashed immediately to the ground.

As the people scattered from the falling helicopter,
the power beams changed colour and size.
It fluctuated between green and blue, as it surged,
and grew to be increasingly wide.

The surges came back down from the heavens,
like an elevator back to the ground.
After several minutes certain people reacted strangely
and walked away without making a sound.

After an hour the beam returned to its first state,
and the surges stopped, as though complete.
Twelve hours later the beam cut off in an instant,
and normality returned to the street.

The effected ones that walked away hours earlier
were all found and accounted for.
Unfortunately they suffered multi-organ failure
and died of an invasion of bacterial spores.

Weeks later it was reported that some families
were having problems with the ones they loved.
They had no recollections of their early life
and remembered nothing of their childhood.

Even though they were thoughtful and caring,
something about them didn’t seem right.
They looked the same, if not slightly younger,
but by a year they had disappeared from sight.

poem by Orlando Belo
Added by Poetry Lover
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