Size / / /

Occasionally a mirror reflects
out of boredom a dreamy face,
two eyes glittering with life
and a paper-creased forehead,
as I flip, zoom, turn, and pinch, 
and shift my attention 
from the gorilla screen 
to five straw-fitted elephants,
riding an Indian saucer, 
honking a wind chime
with their baby trunks.

Twenty-five centuries of space 
and time trapped inside a library 
of a gold-teethed memory chip.
Isn't it amazing? 
A time machine made out 
of zeroes and ones entirely!

Our existence has reduced to binary digits,
to be summoned by strangers at their will; 
awakened by man’s memory,
his loneliness and her curiosity.




Salik Shah is a writer, filmmaker, and the founding editor of Mithila Review, the journal of international science fiction and fantasy (2015-). His work has appeared on Asimov’s Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Tor.com, and The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction (Volume 2). Twitter: @salik. Website: salikshah.com.
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4 Dec 2023

“Ask me something only I would know.” You say this to your wife because you know you’re human. You can feel it in the familiar ache in your back, and the fear writhing in your guts. You feel it in the cold seeping into your bare feet from the kitchen floor. You know you’re real because you remember.
now, there is the shape...humanoid, but not / necessarily human
He came from a salt mine that used to be solid all the way through
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