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They say that the Voyagers
will outlast us for billions of years.

Before then, I whisper into
the neighborhood acacia
that my son learned to walk
in a house we don't own
and in one of the lots around here
we secretly buried our hedgehog
after he died of old age.

We too will have no place
to rest our bodies
but maybe this quiet being
can keep something of me
a touch or a breath
as a whorl
in its massive girth

to say that we were here
even when we're long gone
even when only two pieces
of metal in space
are all that's left.



Anne Carly Abad received the Poet of the Year Award in the 2017 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards. She has also received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and the Rhysling Award. Her work has appeared in Apex, Mythic Delirium, and Strange Horizons, to name a few. Her first poetry collection, We've Been Here Before, is forthcoming this February 2022 with Aqueduct Press. You can preorder the book by emailing the publisher at info@aqueductpress.com.
Current Issue
9 Feb 2026

“I’ve never actually visited the pā before,” she said out loud. “Is this where they gather lāʻī to make the pūʻolo?” she asked. “Yes,” Benny responded, glancing to see where Nanea was pointing. “Here and in other places as well. Many of these ti have been growing for decades now.” She paused for a moment. “I think about all the work you guys do, you know, up in those offices, and I think that all of that work actually starts from right here, in the ground, all covered in the earth and the pōhaku and the ti. Most people don’t even know it, but it all starts right here.
sometime in the night, we heard rocking and knocking and rapping and tapping, a million trillion tiny feet
The triangles bred and twisted, replicating themselves.
Issue 2 Feb 2026
By: Natasha King
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
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