Three Small Poems

Cosmic Order

Although among some Earth folks
the idea meets resistance,
the cosmos doesn't need their prayers;
it works just fine

without assistance.

Ode to the Original Pedestrians

Our ancestors walked from Africa to
Tierra del Fuego! True, it took them
thousands of years to walk all those thousands
of miles, but they went the long way around,
carrying all their worldly belongings,
with frequent stops to grab a bite to eat,
admire the scenery, and rest their dogs.

Receding Blues

You make me so goddamn blue,
but the faster I leave here,
the farther I get from you,
the sooner I'll shift to red.

In case you've never heard of him (and he doesn't expect that you have), Steven Utley is the author of two collections of verse issued by Anamnesis Press, This Impatient Ape (1998) and Career Moves of the Gods (2000). He's also the author of two story collections, Ghost Seas (1997) and The Beasts of Love, forthcoming from Wheatland Press, and of the perennially soon-to-be-finished Silurian Tales, comprising a couple of dozen loosely connected stories originally published in Asimov's, F&SF, Sci Fiction, etc. The Beasts of Love will mark his initiation into print-on-demand publishing -- another strain on his last-century sensibilities.

Find more by Steven Utley in the Author Index.

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