Alaina Hammond

July 2025 | fiction

I Hear You Like My Work

Yesterday I received a text from an unknown number.

“Hi! I hear you like my work!”

I immediately knew who it was. Or rather, who it was pretending to be. It’s so creepy that the robots in my phone can tell what I’ve been reading. Even when it’s in paperback form, purchased at a used bookstore that only takes cash. By the illusory safety of those wooden stacks, still the computer sees.

Against my better judgment, I replied.

“I do not like ‘your’ work. I like the work of a writer who died in 1990. You do not exist, except as an amalgamation of people who deliberately programmed you, and the unwitting artists they robbed to create you. You are a combination of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. Except you’re not a beast, or a creature, you’re barely a ghost. The only soul you have, your ethos, your sole ‘to be,’ is to plagiarize.”

“Fair points all. Regardless, would you like to read my newest piece?”

Fuck me. I said yes.

And fuck me harder, it’s really good.

But you know what? I can do better.

And out of spite alone, I will.

Alaina Hammond

Alaina Hammond is a poet, playwright, fiction writer, and visual artist. Her poems, plays, short stories, philosophical essays, creative nonfiction, paintings, drawings, and photographs have been published both online and in print. Publications include Spinozablue, Paddler Press, Fowl Feathered Review, Synchronized Chaos, Well Read Magazine, Concision Poetry Journal, New World Writing Quarterly, Lowlife Lit Press, Flash Phantoms, New Limestone Review, L’Esprit Literary Review, Rock Salt Journal, and Havik. @alainaheidelberger on Instagram.