We were uncertain as to what family
had lately acquired the neighboring estate,
but they had spared no expense, repairing
crumbling walls with blocks of pure carbon
and erecting automated gun turrets.
Obviously, they could afford the very best.
We deluged them with invitations,
but they pleaded pet allergies, religious scruples,
and elaborate dietary restrictions.
We were thrilled when they reciprocated,
requesting our presence at a formal dinner.
We let out our glittering seams in advance
and arrived punctually. We didn’t recognize
any of the dishes they fed us, effervescent,
foaming and concealed by steam, but the meal
itself was simply wonderful, even when
we realized we had begun to crystallize
from the ankles up (our party slippers
were too tight to notice any changes
lower down). We languorously licked lipids
from our lips, the luscious flavors lingering
as the servants wheeled us, tilted up
on padded handcarts, to the spotlit niches
that had been prepared for us.
J. Bergmann edits poetry for Mobius: The Journal of Social Change(mobiusmagazine.com), and imagines tragedies on or near exoplanets. She has competed at National Poetry Slam as a member of the Madison, WI, Urban Spoken Word team. Her work appears irregularly in Abyss & Apex, Analog, Asimov’s SF,and elsewhere in the alphabet. A Catalogue of the Further Sunswon the 2017 Gold Line Press poetry chapbook contest and the 2018 SFPA Elgin Chapbook Award.
Published 10/31/18