Poetry from The Future: “An Odyssey to the Sun with a Key to a Building Littered with Danger and a Sign Saying No Unlawful Entry” by Micah Zevin

An Odyssey to the Sun with a Key to a Building Littered with Danger and a Sign Saying No Unlawful Entry

The black holes are multiplying, the suns are exploding, human space debris
has been found as we imagine megastructures on earth, habitable, uninhabitable,
planets protecting all flora, fauna in a dwindling and decaying future. The
advertisements 3-D pop-ups, bots, spam risk calls, pulsated on all devices
so you must decline all calls or texts purported to be selling high end clearance
items. Our brain journeys are flooded with multiple violent virtual
traumas a day as we sip our coffee, run errands, turn our keys in
locks, and find we’ve been robbed of things valuable and sentimental,
economic stability, autonomy stolen by algorithms. Do you slash and burn
forests so more will grow, or when the land is too desert dry, will wildfires keep
spreading, destroying homes and towns until pollution is curbed? The sun burns us
while we burn each other with hate and class oppression. A building is
littered with danger and incriminating death, a toxic sign with an ending.
Will the odyssey finish before it begins as we smash into tiny meteoric bits
because we are allowed one unlawful entry after another without recourse or
accountability.

Micah Zevin is a librarian poet living in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY. He has published articles and poems at The Otter, Newtown Literary Journal, Poetry and Politics, Reality Beach, Jokes Review, Post (Blank), the American Journal of Poetry, The Tower Journal, Five2One Magazine, the What Rough Beast Series at Indolent Books, Heavy Feather Review, Big Other, The Bowery Gothic, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Poets of Queens anthology, Narrative Northeast, Pine Hills Review, and is forthcoming in FENCE. His first book of poems, Metal, Heavy, was published by Poets of Queens Press. He created/curates an open mic/poetry prompt workshop called The Risk of Discovery Reading Series.

Image: twincities.com

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