I. Parasitica
Beneath the ruins of their fabled creators
In crumbling caverns and dampened dark
Glitches from the citystate Coleopolis
Defectives from the gleaming Lepidonia
An uneasy alliance of beggars and thieves
Broken strings and bad programming
II. Lucifuga
The old man of AI technology
The dweller in the dark of the city's library
The profiteer who founded Parasitica
Survivor emeritus homunculus Megatarsus
Welcoming newcomers with a dismissive hiss
Thriving long after they've come and gone
III. Physiologus
It comes when the outlaw rules have been broken
A rumble felt in every crack every crevice
From subterranean chambers it triangulates
With massive jagged diamond-tipped mandibles
The bad seed plucked and sucked into the depths
To be disassembled recycled returned
IV. Brooch
In misty bedroom chambers dripping wet
The scent of water lily and spermatophore
Lithe bodies attach like distressed damsels
Caressed by pale pastel stained-glass wings
Customers come and go like phantoms
The misbehaved answer to Physiologus
V. Saccharina
Silver slips in liquid darkness
Mercurial movements behind bookshelf walls
Money changers with crypto urgencies
Paper trimmers setting market trends
Savvy swimmers of new world economies
Binding everything to nothing at all
VI. Gregaria
In his biochip brain he dreams of famine
The thrumming chewing sounds of plague
The cloud flight spurred by spikes of serotonin
But it all comes crashing down amid the rubble
His aging A-frame legs his bloated abdomen
Though solitary now he still recalls the swarm
VII. Cerci
The maternal ones who clean the eggs
Dote on nymphs and cull the nest
Prepare the future generation tech
The renegades the rebel gangs
That shake down strangers by the neck
Their pincers more persuasive than wisdom
VIII. Catalase
Monuments rising in sunken parking lots
Spires of red clay dead husks and book pulp
Engineered to never seek colonization
A genetic kill switch that has since reset
A network of tunnels and chambers created
For a queen that continues to grow exponentially
-- Kurt Newton's writings have appeared in God's Cruel Joke, Mouthfeel, Tower Magazine, The Fabulist, and Cafe Irreal. 2023 saw two chapbook collections of his published by back room poetry: A Troubled Sleep and The Ever-Evolving Alphabet. A third chapbook, animals, is scheduled for release later this year, also from back room poetry.