Stanzas: Monthly Chapbooks September 2015 (Internet) | Page 26

Yesterday’s Future
Hugh O’Brien
Dial tone. Six DTMF pulses. Local number. Pause. Cooing.
Cooing still. Four stifled bird cries; rapid descent, repeated.
Groan, Groan, reprieve: NOISE NOISE squeal NOISE. Silence.
Silence. Connected.
Concerto in the key of tomorrow. Connections, Programs,
Knowledge, People but not people, others, like me, connected.
Here apart, here within, breathing through our fingers, continents
an abstraction. Distance lost; Paradise found.
Communities for all. When multiplied by millions, no subject is
mundane. This, surely, this, is the best of us. Togetherness beyond.
Identity is fluid, your choice. A society of value, of merit, text does
not pose. Appearances were not maintained. Self flows. Honesty,
safety, camaraderie.
The future is bright. Open. Inclusive. True.
The future failed.

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