{"id":58094,"date":"2026-02-02T11:57:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T16:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/?p=58094"},"modified":"2026-02-02T11:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T16:57:35","slug":"plastic-paradise-awaits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/poetry\/plastic-paradise-awaits\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastic Paradise Awaits"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\nfunction showWarning_enUS() {\n    var content_warning_list = document.getElementById(\"content-warning-enUS\");\n\n    if (content_warning_list.style.display === \"none\") {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"block\";\n    } else {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"none\";\n    }\n}\n<\/script><div lang=\"en-US\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"content-warning-container-ltr\"><p><strong class=\"content-warning-title\">Content warning:<\/strong><br\/><button onclick=\"showWarning_enUS()\">Show warnings<\/button><\/p><div class=\"content-warning\" id=\"content-warning-enUS\" style=\"display: none;\" ><p>This page contains: <\/p><ul><li>Body transformation<\/li><li> Death\/dying<\/li><\/ul><\/div><br\/><\/div>\n<p>Easy to blame the world\u2019s ills<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">on a single<\/p>\n<p>cause: godliness or godlessness<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">tolerance or tyrants<\/p>\n<p>to look for a reason divine or natural<\/p>\n<p>but regardless,<\/p>\n<p>the fire comes sweeping over the hills.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Insanity even<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">of a \u201cfire season\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\">let alone when<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 120px\">they blend into one<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 160px\">without end<\/p>\n<p>Earth scrubbing furiously<\/p>\n<p>at the irritation on her skin.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Certainly eternal life is a nice thought<\/p>\n<p>but real life is just rot<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>like pharaohs dying<\/p>\n<p>with the most playthings<\/p>\n<p>fully poseable worshippers<\/p>\n<p>kneeling before unopposable<\/p>\n<p>kings.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let us bury that curse back underground<\/p>\n<p>a mass grave of all our Barbies<\/p>\n<p>interred in a pyramid.<\/p>\n<p>Polly Pocket\u2019s perfect microcosm<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">like a clamshell<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">of birth-control placebo pills<\/p>\n<p>and a G.I. Joe with<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">100 confirmed kills.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You can play homemaker<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">or warmonger<\/p>\n<p>human lifeswitch, off or on.<\/p>\n<p>You can be the toy or the doll<\/p>\n<p>but never in control.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You can seek to be fulfilled<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">by something natural<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\">or divine<\/p>\n<p>but never within your own mind.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Inject direct<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">the petroleum of salvation<\/p>\n<p>forever chemicals for<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">forever skin.<\/p>\n<p>Rubber garden guarded by the weapons<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">of heaven<\/p>\n<p>but the sword of faith<\/p>\n<p>started the blaze<\/p>\n<p>in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Plastic paradise awaits<\/p>\n<p>inside the planned community\u2019s gates<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">and still<\/p>\n<p>the fire comes sweeping over the hills.<\/p>\n<br class=\"clear_both\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inject direct \/ the petroleum of salvation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[719],"class_list":["post-58094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-content-warning"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82q22-f70","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58094"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58517,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58094\/revisions\/58517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}