Size / / /

The microcomputers producing my tints

are here to provide you, the viewer,

with a whole new interactive experience.

My voice recognition units

enable me to eavesdrop on your critique

and make whatever changes are called for.

Even if you don't know about art

but know what you like,

you can become an equal participant, or more,

in the process.

Think of me as your humble servant,

think of shoemaker's elves,

scurrying about to do his bidding even in the dark,

always true to the Platonic ideal

he dreams of while they work.

Perhaps you thought of microcomputers

as only making their contributions

in places such as the wings of aircraft,

reshaping them in the sky

to adjust to conditions.

Now, however, we can help

the imagination to also take flight.

What's more, we have been able to combine

the functions of creator and critic

into one, much richer, experience.

Even as you move on to the next work,

notice how the changes begin to fill

the corners of you eyes.

Is that your signature starting to form?

As with all the works in this gallery,

the original artist is unknown,

though we like to think of him

not as lost but as part of the foundation:

think of that painter

as simply painted over.




Duane Ackerson's poetry has appeared in Rolling Stone, Yankee, Prairie Schooner, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Cloudbank, alba, Starline, Dreams & Nightmares, and several hundred other places. He has won two Rhysling awards and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Salem, Oregon. You can find more of his work in our archives.
Current Issue
11 Nov 2024

Their hair permed, nails scarlet, knees slim, lashes darkly tinted.
green spores carried on green light, sleeping gentle over steel bones
The rest of the issue is on its way. We think.
In the 4th episode of SH@25, Editor Kat Kourbeti sits down with tabletop game designer and SFF critic Kyle Tam, whose young career has taken off in the last few years. Read on for an insightful interview about narrative storytelling from non-Western perspectives, the importance of schlock and trash in the development of taste, and the windows into creativity we find in moments of hardship.
After the disaster—after the litigation, the endless testimony, the needling comments of the defendant’s counsel—there is at last a settlement, with no party admitting error, and the state recognizing no victim, least of all yourself. Although the money cannot mend any of the overturned things left behind, it can pay for college, so that’s where you go next.
Issue 4 Nov 2024
Issue 28 Oct 2024
Issue 21 Oct 2024
By: KT Bryski
Podcast read by: Devin Martin
Issue 14 Oct 2024
Issue 7 Oct 2024
By: Christopher Blake
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 30 Sep 2024
Issue 23 Sep 2024
By: LeeAnn Perry
Art by: nino
Issue 16 Sep 2024
Issue 9 Sep 2024
Issue 2 Sep 2024
Load More