In the Garden of the State

by Bruce Boston

When the self undergoes delineation
in the matrix of a psychoholo cube,
a fluted and opaque blossom
with an articulated stem emerges:
a polychromatic explication in which
globular nodes of flickering brilliance
designate behavioral determination.

In cases of deviance from the norm,
this flower exhibits disintegration:
the spokes of the stem appear shredded
by striation, the petals will branch
in a broader array, flattening the
fluted cone; lines can even arc rapidly
out of the cube in acute angulation.

For the individual under consideration,
the nodes relevant to the aberration
can be excised by topiary techniques:
the surgical implantation of biochips,
injection of neurochemical inhibitors,
the traditionally proven application
of stimulus-response indoctrination.

In this way each floral configuration
can bear fruit within the garden
of the state; the seasons can continue
to accumulate in an unchanging cycle;
we need never again fear that the
wilds will invade or cross-pollinate
the boundaries of our cultivation.

At work, at play, as we pass along
the verdant boulevards and plazas,
we can celebrate the termination
of that weed-choked individuation
our antecedents called history:
our brightly blooming faces reflect
one another’s modular realization.

Bruce Boston is the author of more than forty books and chapbooks, including the novels Stained Glass Rain and The Guardener’s Tale, His stories and poems have appeared in hundreds of publications, most visibly in Asimov’s SF Magazine, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and The Nebula Awards Showcase, and received a number of awards, most notably, a Pushcart Prize, the Bram Stoker Award, the Asimov’s Readers Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. For more information, visit his website.

Above: The Beginning by Polish artist Abirato.