Future is a Scarecrow

    What comes after the thing 

    is already part of the present

     

    After that thing: the interview/exam/wedding/

    birth/death/divorce/dream,

    the dust will settle. Your cells 

    will rearrange in seven days. 

    You will adapt in ten days. 

     

    Some god sits monitoring 

    our fictive lives in his holy book.  

    I like to count my hairs, 

    measure my nails, 

    poke my nose into my future. 

    I like to taste the messy plate clean, 

    keep it ready for the future. 

     

    And the future is a scarecrow—

    so when you feast on the present 

    notice how you will sit still  

    how you will send memes to your friends 

    how you will bake cinnamon rolls, 

    you will still fly, you will still read 

    this is for certain:

    the present is already half the future.

    Athira Unni is a researcher and writer living in California. Her debut poetry collection Gaea and Other Poems (2020) was published by Writer’s Workshop, Kolkata. Her poems have appeared in Channel magazine, New Note Poetry, Gulmohar Quarterly, Paper Dragon, The Alipore Post, etc. She is fascinated by octopuses.

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