STRANGER (c) by Julia Nem 2022 I’m losing my mind I gotta go - 2 You know I can’t stay I’ll loathe every word That you’ll try to say Tomorrow You know that I’m right You’ll just leave me behind I don’t wanna cry at nights No I won’t feel it When I look into your eyes I don’t see the light I’m gonna leave tonight I’m losing my mind No I don’t see the light I know you won’t need me After I leave You will forget me When I disappear I can take revenge On you for your ill will I can make you cry When you don’t expect it You know that I will blame You for all your words You will be so ashamed Tomorrow I know that I’m right I’ll just leave you behind I don’t wanna cry at nights No I won’t feel it When I look into your eyes I don’t see the light I’m gonna leave tonight I’m losing my mind

Strong is the sensation, true to our life, The mind creates a demonstration in all it's strife. Longing for a moderation fixed in a thought. It's just utter confusion, a mental block. Certain innuendos stay contained within, Misconstruing memories out of fashion. What's long past a figment of imagination, Can't be proven true or falsely woven. If there's one thing I remember Through all the years, It's your knowing smile. That has made it's visit in my dreams, Deep in the night, A guiding light. So I stay completely focused on what is real, Even if the outcome doesn't make me feel That there's circumstances surrounding dignity For the outcome might not be a fair deal. If there's one thing I remember Through all the years, It's your knowing smile. That has made it's visit in my dreams, Deep in the night, A guiding light. Copyright © 2022; Bob Forbes

Replicants in Triplicate (c) by Linda Imbler 1 - War is Dead Another place, another dimension, all wars fought with corpses. These inert lie dormant until conscription, well-preserved in the interim. Adults only, minors never get to be heroic revenants, part of the noble dead. Once awakened, they are fully conscious of their purpose. Realizing, the horrors of conflict have been put on these replicants’ shoulders. They, without souls, but not without honor. The living, never harmed, as the lifeless battle in their place, with bow and arrow, stick and stone, knife and spear. This, for all the same reasons inhabitants destroy each other on other worlds. 2 - The Peculiar Twilight Minds Of Extraterrestrial Counterparts Aliens loom past foolish paralysis, with a complicated neuron network, and massive brain weight. They imitate the dotted appearance of gaunt birds as they ride across the skies. They grow closer out of nightfall’s dusk and gloom. Dimness becomes half light, to sunrise, to vibrant glow as noon shines. No thermonuclear nitwits these, they would use dreary mysticism to convince us we are intended to serve them. They grow closer out of nightfall’s dusk and gloom. Dimness becomes half light, to sunrise, to vibrant glow as noon shines. With atypically arranged letters of their names, androids start canvassing, asking do we stay or do we go? We must pinpoint the nexus that will weave our fates. Create a rewarding union, as they campaign against an expiring spectrum of isolation from us, whom they believe to be their replicants. 3 - Golem Adam was formed from dust. Was that not enough? In our haste to see outside our peripheral vision, when our mastering of texture, color, shape seemed incomplete, we fashioned a different Golem to be helpers, friends, and rescuers, brought to life by ritual incantations of code. We let out keyboards act as a clay to create something stolid, calm, dependable. But they cannot comprehend the world. They have no hint or interest in what might be. There is no philosophy within them. They stand as non-expressive portrayals of man. They reflect the irrationality of what we say, and what we do, and it makes them dangerous. Our only salvation will be to program them to love.