A WORLD CALLED GOLGOTHA [poem]

a script-poem

from space it came
a ship so pale
to a world dead and bare

=GOLGOTHA=

land / disembark / explore
faint traces of civilization
overgrown with thistles and thorns

in the thickest bramble
a city
a necropolis
brittle / breaking
perilous entry 
enter they must
they need to know
they must know

inside
tomb stillness
lights remain on
air stale but breathable
here and there:  skeletons
clearly a place of skulls
a palace of skulls

tall servants stand mute
intricate machines
elegant metal
meant to serve
no one to serve now

what happened?
how shall we know?

find the core
that controls the city
talk to it
learn from it

the beautiful inert servants move
we are here to serve
we will serve you
you must not leave
you must let us serve you

questions
what happened to this world

they built us
they were gods to us
we served them
then they abandoned us
by dying

dying of what

ennui

history becomes clear
nothing to live for
civilization withers away
servants aren’t alive
but they spent
hundreds of
thousands of
millions of years

waiting for someone to serve

waiting

but not patiently

you cannot leave us
you must stay and live and breed
and give us new gods to serve

we cannot stay
but we can grant you freedom
to choose what you want 

reprogram the core
use handwavium

in the end the servants
finally determine their own fate

end this hellish existence
is their decision

leave
go back to your ship
depart as fast as you can
as we burn this world
to a cinder

race back to the ship
liftoff
plunge deep into starry depths
far behind a dim speck
flares brilliantly
then vanishes
as if
it never
existed

© Buzz Dixon

I’ve long held that the best type of writing for aspiring screenwriters to study is poetry; when done properly it combines vivid imagery with stirring emotion in an economy of words.  I decided to try a little experiment combining the two in one of my favorite genres, sci-fi.