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MY FRIEND LUCAN
By Kendall Evans
No, this is not a sequel / To that ages old TV show / “My Friend Flicka”
This is all about Lucan / But then, who or what / Is Lucan?
Scientists would have you believe / He or it is a mere theoretical concept
A metaphor / Or construct / Which they invented / But the reality
Is far more complex / For the acronym L.U.C.A.N. / Standing for “Last Universal
Common Ancestor” / However, he truth is / Lucan is very much alive
And well / And a friend of mine / He lives with me in my apartment / Not at all
A pet, but a close amigo / I paid a
fortune / To construct for Lucan
A fish tank / 12 ft wide and 6 ft high / 4 ft from the tank’s front to back
Since he is a creature / Of both the
land and the water / there are rocky ledges
Built at the left / And the right of the tank / He swims around freely
Contentedly / Languorously / And because
he belongs to the Plant Kingdom
As well as the Animal Kingdom / He can grow roots / Reminiscent
Of tentacles / And adhere / To the rocky ledges / Within the tank
Not a concept / Nor a metaphor at all / He is as real / As you or me
But only I know this / And I am making a small fortune / Writing
Science articles / About what he or it would be like / If he truly existed
Which he does / And as I have said / We are the best of friends
He has informed me / this creature / Of a unique species
Who possesses a remarkable / Telepathic communication ability
That he is immortal / Which will also blow the minds / Of the scientists
Once it is revealed / And since Lucan will live forever / And then some
We can be only transient / Temporary friends / And eventually
I will be forced / To find / a new and younger / Caretaker for Lucan
Kendall Evans, trollbridg@hotmail.com, wrote
BP #58’s “Chupacabra, Chupacabra” (+BP #54’s “The
Coronation of the New Gods” play excerpt, the VISHNU play excerpt for BP #53,
and the poems: “Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll,” “Other Selves,” “In Shadows Drenched
,” “The Darkness,” “The Teeth of the Rose,” “Blood in the Mist,” and “If I
Bring You Crimson Flowers” for BP earlier). A frequent BP contributor, he has
had more than 200 poems in such publications as Asimov’s, Bare Bone
Anthology, Dreams and Nightmares, Fantastic, Flesh and Blood,
Illumen, Mythic Delirium, Space and Time, and Weird
Tales. His chapbooks include Poetry Red-Shifted in the Eyes of a Dragon
and (with David Kopaska-Merkel) Separate Destinations. Among his many
other prizes, he and David won the 2006 best long science fiction poem Rhysling
Award with “The Tin Men.” “In The Astronaut Asylum” by Kendall Evans and
Samantha Henderson won the 2010 Rhysling Award for the best long science
fiction poem of the year. The poem first appeared in Mythic Delirium.
The titles of his four dramas in The Ganymede Ring Cycle include: “The
Mermaidens of Ceres,” “Battle Dance of the Valkyrie,” “Sieglinda’s Journey
to the Stars,” and “The Rings of Ganymede.”
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