Clone
︎︎︎ Stephen Zerance
︎ Mar 11, 2026
When you become ultra famous, the conspiracy
is that Hollywood clones you for being too hard
to handle, too much a tomcat, too aloof, too big
balled to care about the concepts of anxiety or
shame or drink drugging because you hate yourself—
it’s the opposite—you actually like yourself.
You can stare hell in the eyes, not be paralyzed
since you understand there are wolves, the wolves need
bones. Everyone wants a piece of the physical—it isn’t
some complex notion in need of deep reflection.
The theory is they operate when you reach this level
of bravado. You get cat caged and neutered so you
can’t run amok. It’s old, restless, this urge to bury
what you create. I’m not set on the details—but you come
back all long faced. The tell is always in the eyes.
The narrative is that you can’t be happy, that you’re surfing
the exhaustion-anxiety-trauma pipeline. Hollywood needs
the sweetest smelling reason why you hate your family,
why mommy was very bad, why daddy was a dog.
If you can’t think of a horrific event, make it up.
These days, you exist to exist. Everyone wants you tied up
and twisted, a little slow, a little dead. No one
cares about you or the horse you rode in on—
they don’t even want you yourself.
is that Hollywood clones you for being too hard
to handle, too much a tomcat, too aloof, too big
balled to care about the concepts of anxiety or
shame or drink drugging because you hate yourself—
it’s the opposite—you actually like yourself.
You can stare hell in the eyes, not be paralyzed
since you understand there are wolves, the wolves need
bones. Everyone wants a piece of the physical—it isn’t
some complex notion in need of deep reflection.
The theory is they operate when you reach this level
of bravado. You get cat caged and neutered so you
can’t run amok. It’s old, restless, this urge to bury
what you create. I’m not set on the details—but you come
back all long faced. The tell is always in the eyes.
The narrative is that you can’t be happy, that you’re surfing
the exhaustion-anxiety-trauma pipeline. Hollywood needs
the sweetest smelling reason why you hate your family,
why mommy was very bad, why daddy was a dog.
If you can’t think of a horrific event, make it up.
These days, you exist to exist. Everyone wants you tied up
and twisted, a little slow, a little dead. No one
cares about you or the horse you rode in on—
they don’t even want you yourself.
Stephen Zerance is the author of SAFE DANGER (Indolent Books, 2018). His second collection FIRST PERSON SHOOTER is forthcoming in 2026.