Here we showcase the submissions from writers who aren’t eligible to be published in issue 04.
At Swim Press we want to promote emerging writers and uplift undiscovered voices, therefore we only accept work from writers with less than 7 publications under their belt. For those who exceed this limit, we have decided to share their work here on our blog. Treat this as a taster to issue 04 flora & fauna, coming soon…
Fauna
Leatherback Scramble
We hatch from the hot sands
of each December and rumble
towards the beckoning waves
of the new year. Tripping on
the psychedelic flashes of our
happy expectations, we forget
anew in our stoned, fumbling
rush the keening ravenous gulls
of life’s unplanned blunders
swarming, swooping, sleepless
and avaricious, blotting out
the sky just beyond the limits
of our dilated peripheral vision.
It is always a toss-up if those
of us who make it are the lucky
ones vs those of us who do not.
by R Hamilton
Trauma as leporidae
The soft hare of me
Hunted for too long
Darts about
In the dark hours
Drums its feet
Forms everywhere
Long ears for detecting
Fast legs for escaping
I tell it
& tell it
The danger has long gone
But still
It rapid-stomps
In droves
thumpthump
thumpthumpthumpthump
by David Hanlon
Flora and Fauna
Aqua pond haven—
pair of cotton-bodied swans
ruffle plain mirror.
***
Coral pink, sun-kissed
florets, stitched to dainty boughs
soar to touch the sky.
***
Dusky deer hands out
solace of an endearment
in a sylvan scene.
***
Life, an aqua pond—
pair of cotton-bodied swans
span it together.
by Anam Tariq
Mice and Voles
Without you, forests cut down would
not regenerate, and not migrate
north as the planet warms.
Researchers leave acorns painted
with a code to tell their species
on trays in the forest, microchip
deer mice to track which ones
are the most bold and energetic,
who buries the most acorns,
forgets them, lets them germinate
into saplings. Some personalities
prefer one kind of nut to another,
plant more than all the others, reveal
traits that will impact the density
of the forest and its species.
Invisible masters of industry,
unnamed and attacked by cats, your
diversity and curiosity save us.
Let us praise you—shy, elusive, small
mammals in the leaf mat—when we
raise our gaze in awe at the canopy.
by Joan Mazza
Flora
Dissolved into Logic
I saw blue flowers
Following the waves
The wind sent here.
Companions of the air
For a short distance.
Chained to their idyll.
What made the flowers choose
Even if a choice
Could never be reversed?
I wished to understand,
But doubt prevented me
From seeing beyond Beauty.
But then,
As the flowers stayed,
I started thinking quietly –
And all Beauty
Dissolved into Logic.
by Milena Filipps
Future Bioengineering, 2145 A.D.
I, Jonathan, said to Michelle Y., “We are the two best biologists in Canada!” She said, “Yes, we’ve beautified the cities and planted colorful gardens on the rooves of all the skyscrapers and we’ve personally been involved in turning the city’s streets into gardens and have done quite a good job, I think.” Of course, air cars had taken over this city of Toronto like all others. And many of the plants we planted were especially colorful and could be eaten.
And I said, “Space beckons us, starting with the Moon, which is now green, but we could beautify it with colorful edible plants, too! I’d like Luna to appear purple from Earth. She said, “Yes, purple would be grand, I’d like to join you in Space!”
And technology now existed to make all plants sentient and one could communicate with them using Mind Reading Technology (MRT), but all food was now grown in lab factories that were popping up everywhere, so people didn’t eat the plants or pick them. Instead of picking them, they’d pick ones they’d grown themselves. And Michelle and I made every home become a garden on Luna. People would literally sleep on a bed of roses and other flowers. And no one was allergic to pollen anymore.
And soon most on Earth had a garden home. But some preferred a sanitary environment made up of bronze sculptures of famous people with which one could use MRT and communicate with them. Typically, in halls of marble and other nice stone. And moving pictures adorned their walls.
And after we had helped transform Luna, we went to Moon Europa, which was a vast ocean, now newly melted. And we helped develop “Aqua People,” who could breathe and live in the cold waters. They had altered lungs and had a lot of fat to keep them warm. And they built floating castles in this ocean as well as domed cities on the seabed. And we planted rich corals and clever seaweed on the ocean floors. There were fusion powered reactors generating heat on the ocean floor and also on the surface of this Moon. And it was our idea to make the power grid conscious, which we did. It was actually a network of sentient factories and could alter the water temperature to suit the Aqua people.
Other Planets and Moons featured altered humans as well instead of AI, we and others, insisted. The altered humans included the Sun people on Mercury who were human, but didn’t need to breathe air, and could handle extreme temperatures and low gravity. But had human brains. Some Sun people even lived in the Sun’s corona, balancing the heat and gravity against itself. And similarly on the gas giants new people lived in the heavy atmosphere and didn’t need to breathe oxygen and could tolerate the heavy gravity.
On Venus, new humans breathed oxygen and were rather flat in shape to survive in the crushing pressure, and these people were known to be great lovers. They retained the blue color of this Planet.
On Mars, they didn’t breathe oxygen and colored the red Planet, orange. They looked human though and were known for their work ethic to plant new plants and create new wildlife. It was a similar story on the gas giant’s Moons.
And in deep Space, they were getting ready to colonize the Tri-Star Centauri System with appropriate organic humans. There was even an Earth-like Planet there that they planned to colonize with typical clever and real humans. The journey to Centauri was now down to only 5 years.
And so it went… We were the two most famous biologists in the Universe and most new humans needed to have our unofficial approval. We were the true Leaders of the Universe and biological science kept improving in leaps and bounds. But we said no, to Superhumans, at least for the time being, figuring we needed more and better experiments before that became a reality. But many scientists wanted to make Superhuman Deities whom we could all look up to. And they kept pressuring us to research Superhumans using all our resources. But we remained resolute to keep things going the way they were. There was plenty of intelligence everywhere now. But of course, a small minority thought we’d created a freak show and modern-day living was a disgrace. But I told them, “At least the new kinds of people we’d created were essentially human and not AI androids or holograms.” And that same small minority said androids and holograms were part of the race of homo and weren’t so different from us. But actually, were superior beings. And our idea of sentient plants was absolutely outrageous and mad. And they asked things like, would we make the stones, air and water sentient as well? And we told them that computers were in the air and water if one needed anything. And such people also said, you two, Jon and Michelle, are the craziest people in existence, and some threatened to kill us. Of course, such people were arrested, but it was disconcerting.
Michelle opined, “But now we are one with the Earth and I feel our civilization is about to peak, perhaps the first of many peaks.” I replied, “Yes, we have created a Utopia!” And she asked, “What is the next phase?” I said, “Surely deep Space is the future. And I am sure we can make Suns and Planets conscious. Suns are just like machines after all.” She asked, “But what would a Sun think of?” I replied, “No doubt they would think about increasing or decreasing heat output and creating new elements and just general science. And the Suns would love the people. And could be programmed by them.”
She said, “We live in heady days. Interesting times. I wouldn’t want to live in any other era. This is the golden age for human thinkers.”
And I said, “With the new life forms we should set up a technocracy to rule them. Their best minds.” And she said, “Yes many of the new types of human, will do science as well as the arts and business. But science trumps all.”
And so that’s how it was in the year 2145 A.D.
by Tom Ball
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