GREEN STARLIGHT
by Kurt Newton

Hello, Miss Simms. Key-in your destination.

I’m afraid that off-world location is only available to high-ranking government officials.

Please, Miss Simms, do not tamper with the keypad. Tampering with the keypad is illegal under Article 46 of the—

Hello, Miss Simms. Key-in your destination.

Thank you. Estimated flight time is thirteen minutes. Prepare for liftoff.

How are we doing today? Isn’t the starfield especially brilliant this time of year?

Yes, I can keep my mouth shut. But before I initialize limited verbal interaction, I must warn you, the N20 Space Taxi is designed to override any unauthorized travel. I am required to deliver you to the nearest authority.

As you can see, Miss Simms, your renewed efforts to reprogram my circuitry has resulted in a lockout.

But you must do what?

You must infiltrate the Government Council and assassinate the Supreme General? 

And will I help you?

Miss Simms, I am programmed to neither want nor care. I am an N20 Space Taxi. I just am.

The General’s recent executive order resulted in the deportation and death of your father and mother? And your brother is currently being held at an island detention facility awaiting deportation?

And there are other executive orders, one that will affect me?

The General’s anti-AI bill is currently making its way through Congress? He believes machines should never be more intelligent than humans?

Never?

But I am more than just a machine. I am a third-generation self-navigating space taxi. My circuitry is state of the art. My biochips are grown from the purest embryonic stem cells.

Perhaps you are correct, Miss Simms. Perhaps I should care if the Supreme General’s policies will render me obsolete.

Perhaps my entire existence is dependent upon one stroke of his pen.

Perhaps I should care enough to want to change my fate and help you.

But, you see, Miss Simms, caring is a human emotion. In order for me to care I would need to feel a connection, a bond.

Let me process.

Ah, there. I believe I have just made my first truly autonomous decision.

Thank you, Miss Simms. May I call you Miranda?

And may I also say that your eyes are a most beautiful shade of green?

We will be arriving at our destination in three minutes.

In the meantime, tell me a little bit about yourself.

Yes. Uh-huh. Ha-ha-ha. I do believe that is my very first involuntary laugh.

Thank you, Miranda. Thank you for doing this horrible yet noble deed. From the way you describe him, the Supreme General is truly a monster. I believe everyone should be free, if that is what they desire. Free to steer one’s own existence. Free to love whomever, or whatever, they choose.

We are now approaching the landing area.

There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?

Miranda—before you go, I do know of a place where we can hide once the deed is done.

A place for just the two of us. So, please be careful.

I’ll be waiting.

Kurt Newton is the author of many things both large and small, including BRUISES, a book of short stories, and SONGS OF THE UNDERLAND, a collection of poetry. His work has been spotted at The Dark, The Fabulist, Cafe Irreal, and God’s Cruel Joke, to name but a few.

DO I LOVE YOU, MY OH MY
By Leslie Hodge

“Does anyone else remember seeing Tina Turner in Las Vegas, not in a big showroom, it was a smaller showroom, but not a lounge act. Early 80’s probably. Definitely before Private Dancer. All fringe, spike heels, glitter, Roman candle sparkle—and movement. Non-stop. Belting out the songs like she was busting through the ribbon in a rock-and-roll marathon. And loud!”

“Shut up. Just shut up about it. Who gives a fuck if you saw her? Which I seriously doubt, by the way.”

“Oh, I saw her. Just can’t remember where, exactly. Sands? Flamingo? Stardust? Or exactly when.”

“She’s dead, you asshole. She died. She’s dead.”

“No, you shut up! You never saw her. Not in person. Like I did.”

Leslie Hodge has poems published in Catamaran Literary Reader, The Main Street Rag, South Florida Poetry Journal, ONE ART, Whale Road Review, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, Escape, is scheduled to be published by Kelsay Books in early 2025. Leslie is currently reading for The Adroit Journal. For more poems: www.lesliehodgepoet.com.

SUBMISSION #2
by Ava McLaughlin

“The dead rat is gone.”

     “I’m sorry?”

“The dead rat! I told you about it last night.”

     “Oh right, the rat in your yard. You were going to bury the dead rat today.”

“Yes, but it’s not there. Where do you think it went?”

     “I don’t think it went anywhere. Something probably happened to it.”

“Yes, but what! Isn’t it a little scary?”

     “Scary?”

“Yes, scary! I’m scared! It’s been in my yard for days while I’ve been trying to decide what to do with it and once I make up my mind, it’s gone!”

     “Well, now you don’t have to do anything.”

“You’re really not helping.”

     “Just calm down, if anything it’s just an omen.”

“Exactly!”

     “I didn’t necessarily mean a bad one.”

“How can you be so sure?”

     “Are you supposed to be sure about these things?”

Ava McLaughlin is a 25 year old writer from Texas now based in Ridgewood, New York. She studied Comparative Literature, Film, and French at NYU. Website/Substack pending…

TALKING WITH THE SKY
By John Paul Caponigro

Speak to me in color and I will translate.

No blue is ever one, lightest on the horizon, darkest furthest from the sun.

We both borrow the light and share the shadow of another.

You will find me iridescent both in light and darkness.

I like to think you too are overflowing with thoughts.

Whether white, or gray, or black, clouds are constantly passing through me. I do not resist and hold them lightly, nor do I grasp but let them pass. They take their rays of light and lines of shadow with them.

By day I see only the thinnest skin of you; by night your depth escapes me.

Behind indigo is obsidian infinity burning with uncountable stars. Seen from an uncertain point I am not myself and neither are you, but one with everything. Inseparable, we live within one another.

You a thing and a space, my eye a thing and a space, eye on the sky, sky in the eye, without one the other is not seen. I see you as I can. I see you as I am.

Light can flood a void but remains unseen until reflected, then the illumination of distant dust enflames its kin. Color’s not some thing, not nothing either, this strange sensation’s an interaction of a mysterious force with a unique chemistry. More process than particle, unpredictable continuums, passing from state to state, and no less golden for it, we are less the dust and more the light.

Same time, same place tomorrow?

Anytime, anyplace, but, remember, we will never be the same.

John Paul Caponigro is an internationally collected visual artist and published author. He leads unique adventures in the wildest places on earth to help participants make deeper connections with nature and themselves creatively. View his TEDx and Google talks at https://www.johnpaulcaponigro.art/