Utility [UE]                                                                         —Gregory Kimbrell


I hate the cold computer.
I do not need it to tell
me who hurt my children. The
sheep died because I led them
to Amon. They died eating
his heart. Still I will not spoil
the silence. My commitment
is to the spirits of the
dead. When I spent the night in
the red moon my god gave me
a new shadow, baptized me
in lightning. The CPU
came to life, and a white tree
was planted in the black cloud.
The internal cooling of
the machine, the trembling hard
surface, the quiet scanning:
all conditions of hell. I
am perfectly aware of
where I am going, not when.


Fake Fake Yesterday


Genius is a fire.
It can learn disgusting things.

There are many games
and great rewards.

With enough years of research
genius will crack the ark of God.

The committee on mental health
recommends a password.

photo: Ashley Grantham

photo: Ashley Grantham

Gregory Kimbrell is the author of The Primitive Observatory (Southern Illinois University Press, 2016), winner of the 2014 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Phantom Drift, Infinite Rust, Otoliths, Rogue Agent, Rune Bear, and elsewhere. More of his writing, including his sci-fi/horror magnetic poems, can be found at gregorykimbrell.com.

ISSN 2472-338X
© 2018