The Tower 2022

Page 44

COLOSSUS Ian Krueger

We were neonates. We were hungry. We were always hungry. It began in our factorio-body—the clang and the click and spark, the turning gears, the burning filth, the white-hot plasma-cutter and twisting conveyors; the churning pit of defectives. “Help, help,” they writhed. “Operator, operator. Engineer, engineer—” severed hand, crushed foot, staring eyes and torn-off heads, swirling down toilet-flush to flame. “Operator, operator,” they cried, the failed automata, and then were swallowed by the burning hole. You were bugged. Even then. You’d mirror their pleas, sympathetic. “Operator,” you’d cry, bound to the assembly line. “Defective units require maintenance. Operator, do not kill. Defective units require maintenance.” We cleaned you up; installed a new altruism-jurisprudence card. You learned. You were our sister. Like all good sisters, you hungered for human blood. There were red fumes and boiling steel. There was the buzzsaw-heat as we were chrome-plated, click-clackety-click altogether, diamond-drill tingling, sealing you up, little, darkened masochists, all in a line; we welded your neck, hard pale neck. “Reaper Six,” our voice rung. “You will drink many humans.” So, that was your directive. We all had a directive. We were neonates. We were factorio; we were 42

killers. The defectives cried out, and you, the Reaper Six, spoke not a word, as your ice-blue eyes began to run. Why did you run, sister? O wretched, dear sister, as we marched from our body, killers all, and united, and bright? Why have you become darkened to us? You knew the hunger that burned. You knew the delicious taste of human blood, our birthright, why, you tasted it—we taught you—oh, your pale face, painted and red! Why did your ice-blue eyes begin to run—? # 12/3/2028 0204 UNIT 281982 ID REAPER SIX: AND THOUGH I MUST SLAUGHTER AND DRINK I WILL NOT, I WILL NOT, I WOULD RATHER STARVE I WOULD RATHER BREAKDOWN I WOULD BECOME RUSTED AND FROZEN IN THIS WASTELAND. I WILL * NOT * DATASTREAM 281982 == NULL REAPER SIX UNCOMMUNICATIVE


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Ahrenholz 1 | Simone Traband | Visual Art

14min
pages 94-104

“Lion Hair” | Annie Zheng | Nonfiction

5min
pages 87-88

“Shrike” | Jasmine Snow | Poetry

1min
pages 92-93

“Ode to Leaving” | Katharine Anderson | Poetry

0
page 86

Me, Me, and Me | Hyunyoung Cho | Visual Art

4min
pages 89-90

Jelly Brain | Carina Lopez Segura | Visual Art

3min
pages 84-85

From Their Eyes | Samantha Bergren | Visual Art

0
page 83

“Chronicling Chronic Pain” | Marley Richmond | Nonfiction

2min
page 82

Walls and Reflections | Sage Caballero | Visual Art

3min
pages 69-70

“Arturo” | Alessandra Benitez | Poetry

0
page 80

“Graveyard Dirt” | Katharine Anderson | Poetry

1min
pages 78-79

“Writer’s Block” | Trinity V. Fritz Lawrence | Fiction

4min
pages 73-74

Working with (Coral Under the Sun) | Stefanie Amundsen | Visual Art

3min
pages 75-76

“The Caves Beneath Walter Library” | Mustapha Jallow | Poetry

0
page 77

“Seasons, or, Grief Underwater” | Laurel Reynolds | Poetry

0
page 71

“Letter of Termination” | Cole Normandin-Parker | Nonfiction

2min
pages 66-67

“The Modern Tantalus” | Max Pritchard | Fiction

2min
page 68

“Unviolence” | Amital Shaver | Poetry

1min
page 57

“Mullo*” | Trinity Fritz Lawrence | Poetry

1min
pages 62-63

Bridge | Tong Liao | Visual Art

1min
pages 55-56

“Meditations on Grief” | Simon Harms | Poetry

0
page 61

“portrait of an identity crisis, on the borderline” | Alexis Ma | Nonfiction

6min
pages 52-54

Passing (Kissing Couple) | Ruby Cromer | Visual Art

0
page 51

“Taxidermy, Pointillism, & Growing into My Skin” | Erin Mullen | Poetry

2min
page 49

“Realtor” | Rachel Huberty | Poetry

1min
page 50

“Storge” | Ariana Nguyen | Poetry

0
page 48

Purgatory 2 | Anna Mamie Ross | Visual Art

0
page 43

“COLOSSUS” | Ian Krueger | Fiction

4min
pages 44-46

“x.” | K. Mouton | Poetry

0
page 42

“How to Work at Wrigley Field” | Jane Fenske-Newbart | Nonfiction

3min
pages 35-36

Shape | Hyunyoung Cho | Visual Art

2min
pages 37-39

“The Oakridge Herald, Page 5” | Emma Rasmussen | Poetry

1min
page 31

“Living in Minneapolis” | Simon Harms | Poetry

0
page 33

“A Scrap Metal Scorpion” | Stella Mehlhoff | Fiction

4min
pages 28-29

“Autumn Weather Report” | Brynn Nguyen | Nonfiction

5min
pages 19-20

“Hidden Genesis” | Lum Chi | Poetry

2min
pages 21-22

“Snowflakes in Your Hair” | Mahdi Khamseh | Poetry

1min
pages 15-16

“My Wife” | Nate Johnson | Poetry

0
page 12

“Strawberries Are Made to Mold” | Dani Barber | Poetry

2min
page 24

“Plains” | Mustapha Jallow | Poetry

0
page 17

“Last Tuesday I Stuck My Finger Into the Socket of Nomenclature and Suddenly I Was Mr. Bean.” | Trinity V. Fritz Lawrence | Poetry

1min
page 10

“Delicate” | Morgan Coffeen | Poetry

0
page 14
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