Cylindropuntia Spatium by Marsheila Rockwell

June 2021 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine

All the void

A star-filled desert

This sleek ship

Our silver wain

*

AI driver

Lays a course

Shortcut? Short circuit?

Asteroid field

*

We fly too near

One pulls us in

A chunk breaks off

Sprouts hungry spines

*

Hooked and hollow

They pierce the hull

Drain our power

And so we drift

*

Our once-sleek ship

Vain pioneer

Now propagates

Their stellar seed

*

Cylindropuntia Spatium

Space cholla

END

Originally published in the June 2021 issue of Utopia Science Fiction Magazine

Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell is a Rhysling Award-nominated poet and the author of multiple books, short stories, poems, and comics. A disabled pediatric cancer/mental health awareness advocate and reconnecting Chippewa/Métis, she lives in the desert with her family, buried under books. Follow her on Twitter: @MarcyRockwell.