Size / / /

Memorize this instruction manual.

When you leave the chamber you'll pass through a garden

Of camarasauri, giant dragonflies, and cycad fronds

Look but don't touch.

Head for the Altai mountains

But leave the souvenirs in the middens;

The locals are quick with an axe.

A note on anthropological debate: Neanderthals do not lumber.

In Kunming watch the steles being carved

And rest by the Five Pagoda Temple

Then make your way down to the sea

And into the city of the dead.

We'll pick you up at exactly three o'clock

On the festival of Andupirapp.

Set your chronometer now

Once you're buried you have one hundred breaths.

Take them slowly

And breathe in the dust of eons, this is all you can bring back.




Alexandra Wells is a writer and renewable energy analyst living in Madison, Wisconsin. She has previously published fiction online at Dante's Heart: A Journal of Myth, Fairy Tale, Folklore and Fantasy.
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25 Mar 2024

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