33 | Poetry by Matt Schumacher, Editor of Phantom Drift: A Journal of New Fabulism & Winner of the Willamette Writers Kay Snow Award

the ventriloquist dummy sweettalks extraterrestrials

you’ll deem me the real steal as alien abductee.
inflicting a swift kick to the curb to the sidekick,
you’ll dispose of the ventriloquist post speedy autopsy.
you’ll prefer me: easily disassembled,
imperishable model of humanity. I can hear you now:
just what we need–a loudmouthed, obedient
toady. you’ll see me and say, perfect.
let’s innerve him. let’s breathe real life into this guy.
make him jerk mini-frankenstein style,
and experience a few thousand light years.
let’s turn him loose timetravelwise
on earth as our child-sized spy.
he’ll be our vile, pint-sized tyrant. but first,
these glass eyes will be real,
reflecting parallel universes
breathtakingly closeby crab nebulae,
drinking in ruby sunsets on pale, distant moons,
surviving the poisonous sapphire atmospheres of gas giants.

Matt Schumacher

Matt Schumacher, who would very much enjoy a joyride in a flying saucer, edits the journal Phantom Drift and lives near a Paul Bunyan statue in Portland, Oregon. His sixth poetry collection, A Missing Suspiria de Profundis, was published by Greying Ghost Press in 2019.

Editor’s Note: Recently, Matt and the other twelve members of the Poets Thirteen were nominated for the Pushcart Prize by this publishing house for their renku, “Quantum Entanglement,” which appeared in the debut issue of The Lotus Tree Literary Review.