Category: The Future

Posing utopic, apocalyptic, dystopic, or superhero solutions to “The Future.” Writers depict futuristic alternative worlds in politics, environment, gender, religion, sexuality, or ethnography.

Poetry from the Future: “Makeup Revolution Highlighter in Supercharge Fever” by Georgia Slavec

Today in preparation for the apocalypseI memorize the labelof my favorite cosmetic highlighter.If I leave my room explodingsparkles, do not regard me. We in the darkare species: endless, like jazz, thoughtsthat will be told. Clear black bottlesof ink with the potential to beanything, or simply to definethe eyes, whose dramasrenew. I hear we’ve got twowarm…
Poetry from the Future: “You Will Click Here Now” by Wes Civilz

Click here now. Click this glowing button now And mute the news and pause the videos And watch the calendar expand anew With layered glitchy dummy text imposed. Now kill all calendar events (deleting Events brings all to front). Expand. Repeat. Recurring weekly thing. Click. Oops. Repeating Event goes daily now so go complete Your…
Rodrigo Toscano: Two Poems from the Future

Itinerant Tendon Already tight, the tendon got tighterLosing even more strength, already weak.A sudden demand on its core functionCircular rotation at ten degreesGive or take, exceeded its base limit.A micro tear thus began its journeyWidening its path steadily to the bone.Upon arrival, the tendon snapped off(A simile on the way that went downWas not found,…
Writing from the Future: “The Lemon Game” by Brittany Redd

You are a regular person just trying to survive in a world where life only ever gives you lemons. Sometimes, you get a lot of lemons; sometimes only a few. It is up to you to decide what you do with them. You can make lemonade. You can make something else if you want. Whatever you try to…
The Future Has Poetry: “Poem (hive emoji flag mind)” by Ben Tripp

hive emoji flag mind waking up virtue no quality but in repetition parasocial, brutal efficiency, it is its own counter-effect. The paradox of tolerance, and the un- tolerable, de facto exceptionalizing horoscopes today read simply “cut” and I rode the train with caution, drafting apology letters for later in my mind already. I held up…
Poetry by Jason Fraley: Two Secret Machines from the Future

Secret Machine #1 The machine’s pull cord, not unlike a lawnmower or teddy bear’s, winds for miles. It’s resplendent, glossy like fishing line still wet, a sharp burst of blinding light when viewed from the right angle. It disappears periodically into the earth’s dry clefts, only to reemerge somehow brighter. The pull cord bows in several sections, burdened…
Fiction from the Future: “Stephen Rogata” by Hugh Behm-Steinberg

The TV is on halfheartedly, a documentary about human flies the kids and us are sort of watching, though as a ghost I’m drawn more to the spaces in between the pixels than the imprisoning overall grid itself. My brother Kevin, head full of beard and nodding, leans against my side of the couch but…
Fiction from the Future: “How to Use This Instruction Manual” by Ron Burch

Remove the Instruction Manual from the container. Usually this is a box, mostly cardboard, with the item to be constructed also within. This may also include parts and tools. Do not throw anything away. It has all been enclosed to help finish the project. Separate the parts and identify with the Instruction Manual that they…
Poetry from the Future: Donna Stonecipher Translates New Work by Friederike Mayröcker, “14.6.14”

“Deinzendorf was a holy communion wafer that I placed every day on my sm. tongue, the bushes rustled in the morning breeze the branches of the cherry trees bloomed through the window the mulberry trees bled at my feet which were bare &c., the moon shone into the little room …….. was she going to…