Continuation of the History of Utopia
There were “birds” whose purpose was to record
the movements of the masses, to repeat
working-class conversation verbatim.
I remember duplicate silhouettes
along power-lines, where they’d match up
and watch us talk hand-in-hand in the dusk.
Their eyes were peepholes we couldn’t shrink from;
Pinpricks the crimson sunset seeped through.
And yet, in less time than predicted, we’d quit
describing the incised rubies of their eyes
or questioning to whom they sang their reports.
We lived as always, sporting and shopping
and pausing at times to noiselessly cheer
some crow, confused by the cameras,
gouging lenses loose, enraged by their beauty.
See two more poems by Joshua Trotter from his new book, “All This Could Be Yours” in Arc 65, along with an interview with his editor, Zachariah Wells. To subscribe or order sample issues please click HERE.
published in Arc 65
