Size / / /

Our minds, diodes, electrodes, operate within the cavity

Of metal torsos, sometimes the wiring in shoulders,

Arms, hips, copper and aluminum sternums.

Our skulls: empty shells, for looks,

Humans love on our lips, smiling,

And we plant their gardens:

Chrysanthemums,

Indian-Hawthorns,

Rows of recreated life, breathing entities.

Let us say for instance:

We open our skulls, pull out the emptiness

Where a brain should be,

Fill the dark cavity with thick, slick dirt.

What seed do we plant?

My answer: Eucalyptus Spearmint;

(Good for living and for breathing)

An idea of existential resemblance.

Sprigs of green leaves sprout from our flower-pot-heads.

They ask the well-built gardeners:

What is good for growing?

We say: Things that cannot be ungrown,

Growth that cannot be handmade.

The best of us water flowers,

Sift dirt and pollinate ovaries

With stiff silver fingertips.




Garrett Ashley lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. His fiction has appeared in Pank, Lore, and is forthcoming in Asimov's.
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16 Jun 2025

When I met the young Mr Turing, I had not yet ascended as Autumn’s King. Nowadays it has become fashionable for the sons and daughters of the lesser fey gentry to improve their position in the shifting hierarchy of the Courts by virtue of intrigue, scandal, and the naked blade; but in those times, it was the custom to advance one’s position through the collection of human bagatelles.
When women cross the border, / coyotes get rooms at motels.
With their noses shaped like rockets and ancient vacuum cleaners
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In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Ariel Marken Jack's 'Sister, Silkie, Siren, Shark' read by Emmie Christie. Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠
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