If it’s like Earth, be sure the morning
light is blue, the afternoon orange,
the sunset magenta. Be sure the sky
pales at the horizon, where the sea is
darkest. Be sure the distant mountains
are purple or blue, saving browns and greens
for the nearest. Make the shadows at your feet
any color you wish, but it must hide
the stinging creatures that crawl even now
toward your bare toes. You are
the interloper, after all, even if you
mean well, even if you paint from your heart,
for the human heart colonizes
in the name of love
any world it dreams of.
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Bruce McAllister is best known for his half century of short fiction and occasional novels, but in another life was a poet and associate editor of a respected poetry quarterly. His new poetry and his short fiction will be appearing or have appeared recently in Analog, Asimov’s Cemetery Dance, Drabblecast, and other venues. His new collection of short stories, Stealing God and Other Stories—science fiction, fantasy and horror from the new millennium—appeared in 2022 from Aeon Press and (he’s happy to report) is getting lots of media attention. |