June 2004

 

Why We Live in an Alternate Future

 

Blame it on the slow pace of the economy

Or the E-Z one hour a week exercise plan

the oddball products eaten by dieters, men 

recently bald or seeking a darker lead in their

pencil, the heart of alfalfa and omega three.

 

You’re going down the river road, forever,

sucking oil at the breast of Arabia, enjoying

the global warming that nobody thinks is real.

You’ve gone wandering plastic Pangaea in

search of noon shine and river-squint lotion.

 

The cave-dwellers and the beach-combers

should be friends, genetically compatible,

sharing the magic, tomorrow land on acid.

When you live there you have all the time

you need to think up what happens next.

 

After red and blue hair, transcendent tears,

living only for God and group therapy, one

more thing to be neurotic about, you see it,

the headlight of the sweeper always online, 

history without ink or edit, a constant update.

 

What would it take to shake loose your belief?

Join me in suspense, a saving sign whispered

in a different word, a code that goes back to

the beginning of your wave, a splash of time,

spiritual meds for the final test tube analysis.

 

There’s a defect where the future once lived,

And we’re caught up in alternate shrewdness,

a multiplicity of fire, the bandwidth of a spark

from DC to Light, flying from our lips. After

the rescue one does not weary of the flame.