Incompatibility
“Sometimes, when I look at my body in the mirror, I hate it,” said the woman.
“It’s silky and curvaceous,” I said. “It can perform miracles. It can create new life.”
“That’s the problem. Creating life is too much power. I can’t stand the responsibility. It’s playing God.”
“People have been doing it for thousands of years. Why do you think we were able to populate the planet and build great cities?”
“Maybe it’s just one huge mistake.”
She always did insist that we use a condom, and I don’t think it was mainly to ward off diseases. Or maybe to ward off the worst of diseases. That would be us, humanity.
I had always wanted to be a father. The affair was brief.
Ethan Goffman’s new book, The Church of the Oversoul and Other Stories, is due out from UnCollected Press in early 2025. He is author of the short story collection Realities and Alternatives (Cyberwit, 2023), the poetry collections I Garden Weeds (Cyberwit, 2021) and Words for Things Left Unsaid (Kelsay Books, 2020) and the flash fiction collection Dreamscapes (UnCollected Press, 2021). Ethan is co-founder and producer of Guerrilla Podcasts on The Song Is. He writes nonfiction on transportation alternatives for Greater Greater Washington.
