‘Soft Machines’ is a poemette that has appeared in The Stray Branch magazine. As well as poetry, each issue features diverse artwork and fiction with a dark theme.

From the Editor, Debbie Berk—This is the religious, political, pretty poetry free zone. Here the words bleed.

I originally started this blog for anyone who wanted to find out a little more about my fiction. However, as Simon Petrie pointed out in his preamble to Cynthia Mershark’s mysterious works, poetry is allowed to be inscrutable, so I’m not going to give any background to ‘Soft Machines.’

Soft Machines

I wore the clothes she gave me.
I did my best and worst.
By reflection and construction,
I hid within the whisper light.

If you sleep inside a fridge,
you must not close the door,
she whispered,
Soft machines must take the road
beside the sea.

The Soft Machines artwork is an orbit calculation I made for a chaotic strange attractor plus a bit left over from my lunch. I’m not that fond of tomatoes. As well as this illustration, I’ve done a second one which is a vanitas still life because I happened to have a skull handy (not left over from lunch).