for the Tercentennial Revolution, 2076
Past cordons and radiation placards
in refugee defiles where genes
are crimped but not broken,
where exoplebes gather in sects
pristine or decadent, and the books
encased in plastic are read by the page,
where they bootleg the psychoactives
that can discreate the self or free it
from the cordons lodged within,
I learned that my ripening rage
mirrored the rife anger all about,
I revelated the self-evident,
that we are the many who serf the few,
that those honorable statesmen
who have ruled in returning cycles
through the changing generations
are only simulacrum resurrections,
mannequin constructs aping life,
controlled by corporate entities
chaired by those less human still,
whose eyes lie cold as marble,
whose flesh is firmed by plastic,
who infest the palaces of state,
who ride the silent limousines,
who fear the infrared crosshairs,
who suddenly cultivate a garden
of indefinite tomorrows.
Bruce Boston is the author of more than fifty books and chapbooks, including the dystopian sf novel The Guardener’s Tale and the psychedelic coming-of-age-novel Stained Glass Rain. His poetry has received the Bram Stoker Award, the Asimov’s Readers Award, the Gothic Readers Award, the Balticon Poetry Award, and the Rhysling and Grandmaster Awards of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. His fiction has received a Pushcart Prize, and twice been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award (novel, short story). http://www.bruceboston.com
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