Friday, November 4, 2022

MISSION IMPROBABLE

With that first slap 
of existence, 

you are told
congratulations;

you are contestant number 
eight billion 
and one—

you are 
the chosen one—you 
will be upgraded.  

And just like that, 
you're an 
astronaut, 

an intrepid explorer 
of inscrutable territory. 

Your experimental endeavor 
(which you cannot 
decline): 

to hurtle, in this 
gangly vessel, headlong 
toward the future—

flying at the fantastical 
rate of one second 
per second, 

each and every second—
and then, 

when, at long last 
and terrible cost, you 
finally arrive, 

to promptly check-in
on the status 
of the rest of us.