Shivers
by Nevada Kerr

They arrived like specters
Exchanging faces
Trading names
Without memories, they reinvented the day
We recognized their voiceprints
Fading in the wind

Whenever they came to visit
They left their cards
Happy hall-mark horrors
Love gone stale on supermarket shelves
This time their electronic smiles
And drug-induced laughter
Made no impression

They brought company with them
Mommy-replicas and the frozen sane
But we could not have cared less
We were still spinning from the aborted child-slaying priest embryos
They brought with them last time

And we always loved the way they sent ecstatic shivers
Down their artificial spines
Spiked and twisted slivers
Manufactured in their minds

We recall the first time they arrived
We felt a cold metallic presence in the air
Not quite like death
More like that quaint 20th century invention, television

We miss them now because they're never coming back
But we've grown accustomed to their absence

They looked and sounded so much like us
Without souls, they never died or longed to mate
They never had to strive to unfeel love and hate

It took us centuries to reach that state
But now that we share the same fate
We too manufacture shivers
First-rate, with no expiration date
You will never have to wait even if you're late

You can bring the bait on a large plate
But you must leave the nurslings in a crate
And never ever forget to lock the gate
The shivers thrive in a virulent place!

Written by Nevada Kerr
10th March 1995.
(Updated 6th October 2001).