My story “The Beautiful Horizon” in The Purpose of Reality: Solar has been shortlisted for the 2022 Aurealis Awards in the Fantasy Short Story Category. Info about The Purpose of Reality collections below.
They’ve built a block of apartments
across the street, all the way along.
My neighbors over there had to vacate,
but I heard a little wailing
beneath the motors’ roar
when the night machines
ground their houses to gravel.
A wall of metal and glass
has risen skyward,
with doors like windows
and windows like doors.
What separates the familiar
from the unknown?
Is a pedestrian crossing enough?
I’ve never seen a soul enter
or leave those apartments,
and I’ve filled that mysterious
construction with my fears.
Cross-hatched sunlight reflected
from its glass facade slants menacingly
through my windows, and flashing
dust motes portend a cataclysm.
My neighbor Selena dared
to pay a visit across the street,
and I asked her what she’d seen.
With a faraway look in her eyes,
she spoke of never-ending rain,
rivers flowing to the Sea of Tranquility.
Late at night, I’ve seen her
in the street, dressed all
in white, pirouetting gracefully
on the median strip.
Although now I come to think of it,
she always talks like that. And I only
recently started peeking through
the bedroom curtains after
midnight.
~/~
On Monday, Selena invited me to
a neighborhood meet-up to discuss
the incongruity of the moon,
and whether anyone should visit.
“Some dreams fall like autumn’s leaves
and others rise like the summer’s
butterflies. But either way,
when all is said and done,
they turn to dust,” she said.
The Purpose of Reality illustrated short story and poetry collections from Meerkat Press, with pretty fair reviews from Publishers Weekly, Goodreads, Aurealis, and the like, now available on Amazon and at other outlets, click for details including reviews.
artwork
Other Places, click image for larger version. Evolved by the Visual Evolution Engine, my software that seeks unimagined realms. Art and poetry also on Instagram.
