Carbon capture cars,
Tourists in outer space,
Alcohol free bars,
Stem cell enhancement of your face,
Global warming out of control,
Fascists remove our freedom of speech.
The terror police on constant patrol,
Children shot at the local beach,
From abandonment of justice,
And failure of democracy,
To enfranchisement of the law,
Compassionate meritocracy;
Mass migration north
Brings amphibious communities;
An Arctic access war:
Undersea farming opportunities.
In tomorrow’s world we stockpile
All that we fervently desire;
Test out all our fears,
Imagining something dire;
Reveal our inner prejudice
In making a prediction:
Miss the inherent hypocrisy
Contained in our conviction.
The house becomes a spaceship
In Saturn’s outer ring.
The crew our loyal subjects
And we the queen and king.
At night, in our suspense,
Resorting to superstition,
We name each minor ring-band
To strengthen our position.
Our thoughts become more pertinent
As we make our celestial selection.
Confidence glows, as our ring count grows,
That our lies might escape detection.
We drift along our starlit road,
Plotting our ascendancy
But a fault in our genetic code
Creates a fatal discrepancy.
Grieving, wailing and sighing
At our loss of immortality,
We die in shock and outrage
To the sound of muffled drums.
But today we’re still imprisoned
Within our own complacency.
Avoided or envisioned,
Tomorrow never comes.
M R McBride, Spring 2019
