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We’ll know we’ve reached civilization
when our viewport shows nothing but bodies,
floating caskets with see-through glass windows,
helmetless corpses with bug-eyed heads twisted in agony
mummies wrapped in cloth, dried into skeletons
by thousands of years of floating in a vacuum
silver capsules filled with ashes
single digits identified only by engraved tags and rings.

Everybody, no matter which planet they live on
looks up at the sky and wants their corpse to reach the stars
never thinking
about the clogged obstacle course all those remains might create
for travelers
from across the universe.

 

[Editor’s Note: Publication of this poem was made possible by a gift from Maria Schrater during our annual Kickstarter.]



Holly Day has taught writing classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since 2000. Her poetry has recently appeared in Big Muddy, The Cape Rock, New Ohio Review, and Gargoyle, and her published books include Walking Twin Cities, Music Theory for Dummies, Ugly Girl, and The Yellow Dot of a Daisy. She has been a featured presenter at Write On, Door County (WI), North Coast Redwoods Writers’ Conference (CA), and the Spirit Lake Poetry Series (MN). Her newest poetry collections are A Perfect Day for Semaphore (Finishing Line Press) and I’m in a Place Where Reason Went Missing (Main Street Rag Publishing Co.).
Current Issue
4 Nov 2024

“Did you know,” the witch says, “that a witch has no heart of her own?”
Outsiders, Off-worlders {how quickly one carves out a corner of the cosmos, / claims a singular celestial body as [o u r s] in the scope of infinity}
Lunar enby folks across here
  In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas' 'Embroidery of a Bird's Heart' read by L.W. Salinas.  Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: ⁠⁠Spotify
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Art by: nino
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