would-be future-humans
by
Jenny Irish
Jenny Irish is from Maine and lives in Arizona. She is the author of the hybrid collections Common Ancestor and Tooth Box, the short story collection I Am Faithful, and the chapbook Lupine. She teaches creative writing at Arizona State University and facilitates free community workshops every summer.
from would-be future-humans
The USS Narwhal
The metal womb knows nothing of submarines, but that is how she thinks of herself: a submarine, except that she is not submerged and moves through time and not water, so the name is wrong—sub is wrong, marine is wrong. But, in body and in experience, that is how she sees herself: a submarine, a fat metal dart as sleek as a steel seal, parting an unimaginable vastness, and housed inside her, a hundred tiny and terrified heartbeats fluttering, frenetic, and longing to surface.
