Size / / /

Look at those robots down there

holding their perfectly compatible partners,

analyzing their children for design flaws,

scooping fuel into cobalt-glazed bowls,

putting the day's credits on yesterday's debts

while other robots come and go,

some getting redesigned,

some getting scrapped,

their skeleton ground down and

thrown on the metallic topiary

to create sturdier blossoms

and sharper petals. And so,

rain beads on the houses and runs off again,

the heat sinks get hot and then cool again,

the old cemeteries in all their orderly profusion

grow over, forgotten and peaceful.

The robots drink their hot oil

before the quiet of night's recharging,

and in the morning wake in fresh amazement

from their randomized dreams.




Joanne Merriam is the publisher at Upper Rubber Boot Books. She is a new American living in Nashville, having immigrated from Nova Scotia. She most recently edited Broad Knowledge: 35 Women Up To No Good, and her own poetry has appeared in dozens of places including Asimov's, The Fiddlehead, Grain, and previously in Strange Horizons.
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10 Feb 2025

The editors for the AfroSurrealism Special invite you to submit fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.
he curls his bicep into ever more and more and more bicep
Hush. He sees through / the static. Softly. It sees him back.
“Please also be reminded of the following prohibited items,” the clerk explains kindly. “No chemicals or toxic substances. No fluids over 1,000 milliliters. No lithium batteries, laptop chargers and power banks, no love, no light, no family, no safety.”
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