To continue with the prose poem theme (last week I wrote about Peter Johnson’s While the Undertaker Sleeps: Collected and New Prose Poems ) I offer this stunningly wonderful poem by Joanna Fuhrman, author most recently of To a New Era (Hanging Loose Press, 2021).
The Future is a Bathtub Filled with Pure Rage
After the warnings are subtweeted as jokes// after the quizzes shrivel up // after the factory rips off its wings// after a multiverse is found in a barbie’s missing asshole// after I wake up to an ocean on fire// after I unplug the moment// after you soak up the sound// absorb the fear in the petunia// after we sweep up the squawking//rejigger the excess//after the wedding of misanthropes and mist//after the yelling rehearsal//after we fall out of bed //after the truth bomb is unbombed //after you right-click the call out//after you uninstall the update// after I left-click the catastrophe//unpack the paranormal//after the pause// before the yell//after the lavender-scented tremors and the sound of something not wind
only then can we be part-god/part-meme, only then can we navigate the soft spots we desire, can we unzip the narrative—
Friend-enemy-follower-wizened pronouncer- dust influencer-baby ghost, just wait— one day we’ll float above the neighbor’s clackety-clack, smash language against tundra into smoke
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Author: Denise Duhamel
