WHICH NOW
Touch the spines in the library,
open the brains.
Dusty, mildewed pages,
knife-edged.
Which now
are you living in?
What you have dreamed about
they have already built.
Terapolises spreading upwards
and outwards, in many vectors.
The world in an overlay of networks:
a million tributaries,
a cascade. Machines
that think in circles,
that talk in light. Cuts
lenses 2.3 diopters thick
in concave curves. Stops
the train for snow. Opens the door,
closes the faucet. Pumps
brake fluid and pinpoints
your exact location
in relation to everywhere else.
No need for constellations.
The future is closer
than it appears in the
funhouse mirror.
Yet you live in a patch
of the past: a creaky house
with bad insulation,
work as a gear in an obsolete system,
perch on a Jurassic monolith
lumbering, slow to grow,
already toppling over.
Which now
are you living in?
We have outsourced all our thinking.
We are animals again.
Reblog cat videos,
pet Roombas, whisper prayers
to shiny rocks.
And draw fears
on cave walls
while the world ends.
Which now
are you living in?
Christine Fojas is a Filipino-Canadian hailing from Las Piñas City and currently living in Metro Vancouver. She has a BA in Comparative Literature from University of the Philippines and works as a library technician at Douglas College. A list of her publications can be found at her website. She is also on Twitter as @chrisfojas. She is a regular contributor for Marias at Sampaguitas.
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