The steers don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Out here, nobody does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He can\u2019t use a bot to check his work. That\u2019s the point\u2014only Pa\u2019s too stingy to send a Colliebot out with the herd, sending his only son instead to mind them on the range. Alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He can spot other herds in the distance, some with three or four of the damned contraptions keeping them close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He just has his trusty mount, his sorry self, and this here tube of lipstick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His hand shakes as he applies the pale pink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He can\u2019t trust a bot, can\u2019t trust anything but the puddle made by some bull\u2019s hoofprint to admire the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He looks\u2026 pretty. Different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He can\u2019t tell if it\u2019s the lipstick or the lack of surveillance. He doesn\u2019t know if it matters. If a bot spots him, he\u2019ll be reported. Facial aberration on a known male subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First would come the med-drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the sheriff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s a fool not to wipe it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It just smells so good. Slightly floral. Tastes like a daydream. He doesn\u2019t want to be the only one to taste it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He imagines the roughness of another pair of Wranglers, rasping against his own. The heat between. The glide of lipstick, skin on skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He gets so lost in almost-was, he doesn\u2019t hear the telltale whir approaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only the sharp blip of facial recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The beep of an identified aberration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The click of a signal, sent far and wide, trying to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bitter, bitter end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alyssa Buchthal is an LA-based writer whose works center queer Americana, primarily themes on identity, perception, and power. Alyssa’s poetry and prose have been recognized by Pipeline Artists, Globe Soup, The Australian Writers’ Centre, and Writing Battle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The steers don\u2019t care. Out here, nobody does. He can\u2019t use a bot to check…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":100043305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,3292],"tags":[6,3400,3297,3266],"class_list":["post-100043304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-fiction","tag-cyberpunk","tag-flash-fiction","tag-poetry","tag-trans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100043304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100043304"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100043304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100043308,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100043304\/revisions\/100043308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/100043305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100043304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100043304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neondystopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100043304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}