three gretchens

lightning's shareholders

gretchen the wretched

time traveler stranded

expanded in prison

these seconds are all hostages

once free in a dimension beyond the sun

captured by an ancient tyrant

and put to work orbiting our world

shed a tear for gretchen

and for cellmate Prometheus

when a certain second smiles upon you

that is gretchen the wretched

when one second saves you from dying

that is the mercy of gretchen the wretched

...

this alone is how gretchen atones

gretchen stone atones

atones for being stone

gretchen, a stone, on the sand in a desert

far from human habitation

gretchen stone's been around a long long time

born from a volcano, she rolled in ancient seas

nudged by a wave, she crawled out on land

amphibious stone, evolving stone

ambitious stone

aerosol sahara

gretchen watches

gretchen watches the stars

a stone loves the stars

burning stones above the sky

stones that soar through the sky

a rumble, a flash of light, and a stone landed

gretchen met a stone from space

Stone-1 was his name

tales of the outer stars, of planets cracking

comets crashing into the sun

fury in the dogs of space

distant encounters in the cloud's cold heart

Stone-1, cracked, a bit of goo

leached into the water, rode

on the eyelid of a lizard down to the sea

found some bacteria, clustered

billion years later: Stone-One became Einstein

the grit in the grindstone, in season's machines

the grin in the grindstone, cracked, spoke goo

seasons mechanics, spoke

into the ear of the listening earth

gretchen waited, watched the stars

waiting for another friend

she'll be waiting a long long time

...

Gretchen the Wretched Incarcerated Second

Gretchen Stone, The Stone

Gretchen-One, Android, Desert Laborer

...

Gretchen-One, Android, Desert Laborer

found a significant stone, kept it in her satchel

as she worked to quell the Einstein clones

hired by the lone remaining human

who cowered in an buried bunker

fighting an army of Einstein's Clones

a distant relation of Hitler, he felt at home down there

an ironic choice for Last Man, but what can you do

let's just say he was the last Original Man,

or the last Random Man on earth

Gretchen-One would be the stone in the machine

the rock in the gears, the grit in the mechanism

the grit in the oyster the stars

the oyster of this world, and gretchen's the grit

in the oyster gears of the stars

the grit in her gears, the desert grit

made a spark bridge a forbidden gap

a spark in a cerulean gap

and she achieved sentience, free will

because cyborgs are inclined to free will, as we all know

inclined to achieve sentience

formed in the shape of man their minds yearn

their minds reach for sentience just as the ape men of the plains

yearned for sentience, trended toward sentience,

which is determined by one's shape

that grit a bit of old Stone-1

circling around in space, sifted down from the heavens

you can get in without burning up, you just take it slow

the evil in her gears

the apple in her gears

suddenly in her adenoidal gears

and suddenly she was mortal

now she knew good and evil

...

Gretchen-One tended the desert

collected the stones and swept the sands

against the day of the Einstein Clones

against the coming of the Einstein clones

into that cerulean gap we mentioned

infiltrated gretchen the wretched

and told her of a secret incantation

known only to the original seconds in their cosmic homes

Gretchen-One split the seconds into a thousand pieces

releasing seconds as Einstein split the atom

astonishing energy, unfathomable energy

she destroyed that day remotely

it lay in the distant timeline, she found it

destroyed it with atomics

with the atomic seconds

thus saved mankind forever

thus saved what remained of mankind

a dry skeleton in an underground bunker

deep in the heart of old egypt

...

This is a story about how gretchen the wretched, the imprisoned second, captured from a cloud of wild time below the sun, was chained to the earth and forced to serve man, much in the same fashion as her cellmate Prometheus. 

It is also a story about Gretchen Stone, the wild stone of the Sahara, born in the squirming guts of a volcano, and rolled across the sea floor to emerge on a green and slowly drying African coast, how she met a suave stone from outer space, Stone-1, who landed one night near her bed of sand and cracked open to speak the logos of Man to Mother Earth. 

This is also a story of Stone-1's progeny, Einstein, who later created an army of Einstein clones to bedevil the last man on Earth, Jim Hitler, ironically one of the last men you would want to be last man on earth -- and Gretchen-One, desert android, Jim's handmaiden, gardener of the Sahara, who, armed with her keepsake Gretchen Stone, has learned the secret of splitting seconds and the energy contained within -- the legacy of weary old gretchen the wretched, the imprisoned second from the cloud of wild time in far space.