By the time i'm old
there will be microchips
implanted in the back of eyes
and children churning
with gamma ray breakfasts
And i will grumble about
how back in my day
calls would sometimes just drop
from thin air
and we would be worried sick
about what had become
of the other side
I'll complain
about how people these days
are so soft
because they lack uncertainty.
Even the bosses are sleeping late
in the dusty light of September.
The parking lot’s empty and no one cares.
No one unloads a ladder, steps on the gas
or starts up the big machines in the shop,
sanding and grinding, cutting and binding.
No one lays a flat bead of flux over a metal seam
or lowers the steel forks from a tailgate.
Shadows gather inside the sleeve
of the empty thermos beside the sink,
the bells go still by the channel buoy,
the wind lies down in the west,
the tuna boats rest on their tie-up lines
turning a little, this way and that.
–Joseph Millar
