"Possible Futures," "Gifts to Report," and "Walls Manufacturing Starts"

Possible Futures

 Here’s my plan                        without a plan, with every fiber
           of my                           spider ceiling               walls
streets,             overrun by                   crisis debts                   I
we       could so           easily   forgive.            If defamation
is delayed,       critics must      settle disputes              or 
            end up             behind bars,                 or be test                     
subjects            on new            experimental                rockets,
            marked with     an X.              The nation of               stars
and ships         and arks           are not simply biblical 
            but fantastical              like space is                 the sea of 
unknown         mapping,                     not our survivals, 
            high risks,        potentially,                   major discoveries
(revolutionary).                        My future minds          will build
            snowplows      with A.I. Chat GPT,    with terrifying
precision,         a key                ghost blood,                             soaked
            memories,        stroking           in an evaporating         sea.

 


 

Gifts to Report

Treat yourself              juice beauty
            The daily quizzes        finding your reflections
Floating           like yet another                        body
            in the news.                 Just moving on
would be nice              but now,          measures
            shout dreams               into powdered dust,
furnish off-seasons                  into unclimbable 
            trees,                peacock songs             down below,
voices,             heavy from      evacuations,     knife fights,
            trapped consumers       boxes adrift,                 power moves
running around town                           asking for small bribes,
            gratuities          while we scavenge                  our pockets
for snack change                     yearning to      sip, savor, socialize,
            gifts to report.

 


 

Walls Manufacturing Starts

Can you love zero?     Can you camp in a swing?
            Can you change your ‘state’?    to massive
missile attack drone    saying, take precautions
            extra ones, even uneven          lethal nonlethal netting
protecting    from mosquito-burn viruses   in the air
            catastrophe politics    breathe gasping last
but short booming noises.       Why’s it so difficult
            to find a ‘good therapist’?!     A city in a dessert
not taking insurance, no diet, a happiness diet,    instead like being
            being pricked like cacti         in the scalding sun
grubby greedy con men          leaders melting fires   like wicked witches
            or warlocks,    who don’t know          what a coward is
unless it's someone else,          mocking what they don’t understand
            instead engaging         in stunts           obsessed with bundles
skin spots        walls manufacturing starts      less and less able
            to cause distraction     let alone decisive decision making
dig themselves underneath     golf courses     too good   for them
            being,    buried with   pet projects. 

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Micah Zevin is a librarian poet living in Jackson Heights, Queens, N.Y. with his wife and guinea pigs. He has published articles and poems most recently at the Heavy Feather Review, Big Other, The Bowery Gothic, The Poets of Queens Anthology, Narrative Northeast, Pine Hills Review, Spoke Journal, Fence, First Literary Review East, Brevitas 20-2023 Anthology of the Short Poem and the Queensbound poetry project and Oddball Magazine. His first book of poems, Metal, Heavy was published December 1st, 2020 from Olena Jennings and Poets of Queens Press. He has created/curates an open mic/poetry prompt workshop called The Risk of Discovery Reading Series.