{"id":58151,"date":"2026-01-12T01:51:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T06:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/?p=58151"},"modified":"2026-01-12T09:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:00:23","slug":"creature-with-the-ticking-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/poetry\/creature-with-the-ticking-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Creature With the Ticking Heart"},"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>Disregard for personal autonomy<\/li><li> Body transformation<\/li><li> Self-harming behaviors<\/li><\/ul><\/div><br\/><\/div>\n<p>Don\u2019t cease, my darling; maintain<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 50px\">your<\/span> pulse unchanging.<\/p>\n<p>When you falter, recall that age<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 50px\">is<\/span> not your master,<\/p>\n<p>any more than time has ever yet<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 50px\">mastered<\/span> me.<\/p>\n<p>Sit with me as I grow older:<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 50px\">let<\/span> my hand caress<\/p>\n<p>your gentle scales, as months are tallied<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 50px\">by<\/span> your organs and your veins.<\/p>\n<p>My life\u2019s clock is tucked tenderly<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 50px\">within<\/span> your breast,<\/p>\n<p>where I stored it once<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 50px\">to<\/span> loan my time to your survival.<\/p>\n<p>I listen now<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 50px\">as<\/span> its ticking slows.<\/p>\n<p>I have brought you back to life before,<\/p>\n<p>but I have so little<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 50px\">of<\/span> my living left to give.<\/p>\n<br class=\"clear_both\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you falter, recall that age is not your master<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"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-58151","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-f7V","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58151","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58151"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58305,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58151\/revisions\/58305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}