Fleshmechs of the Current Age
by Andrew Kozma
Skin upon skin upon skin upon skin until callous
is all we are. This is the horror sci-fi movie
I was promised fruiting beneath our flesh
an array of bombs and poisons, all eager
to embrace their next target. Is it you or me?
We lay away fear like we’re canning for winter
in hopes fear will save us. Instead, it’s our ammunition
that will save us. This is tattooed under our eyelids
so we will never forget who to hate. Mirrors
and smoke are what we choke on, these bodies
we’ve been gifted, outsize and awkward. Oh my god
isn’t here today and has no forwarding address.
We are our gods. Burn your offerings and pray
we aren’t the offerings, that we have a future.
Andrew Kozma’s poems appear in Strange Horizons, The Deadlands, and Rogue Agent, while his fiction appears in Apex, ergot., and Seize the Press. His first book of poems, City of Regret, won the Zone 3 Press First Book Award, and his second book, Orphanotrophia, was published in 2021 by Cobalt Press. You can find him on Bluesky @andrewkozma.net and visit his website at andrewkozma.net.
