The Rationale by Ken Poyner

Between us there is notice. A braille of recognition, a mummery of portraiture. You expect cycles of me, rumors of left-handed gods, a great passion for ingestible stones. Mine is the part of meeting expectations. Yet expectations supplely oppress you. And here I am wingless, and for the full moon grieving sinful, rich feathers. Feel them. Take one and split it into a quill. Dip it into the dark and write for me your love for another. Excuse all, reveal nothing – but write the confession with me, quill by quill. Write not of me, but through me only. Here, take another. Soon, rumors of deified stones.

Ken Poyner’s latest collection of minifictions, Constant Animals, can be located through links at www.kpoyner.com, or at www.amazon.com. He has had recent work out in Analog, Asimov’s, Poet Lore, and at several other places, both print and web. Next book: The Book of Robot, poetry in pursuit of artificial sentience.