In the Rivers north of
The future we cast the net …²
We make Plans and begin to
Guess how far the Future will resemble us—³
Each time we part, we extract only one
Small Promise from each other:
Tomorrow? Tomorrow.⁴
The cards from a fortune-teller’s deck
Are Scattered—Prophesying Nothing.⁵
The Orgastic Future year by year recedes before us:
Tomorrow we’ll run faster, stretch our arms further—⁶
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps in this Petty Pace from day to day
To the last Syllable—of recorded time.⁷
Take no thought for the Morrow,
For the Morrow shall take thought for itself.⁸
If good things are coming, they will be a Pleasant Surprise—
If bad things are, and we know in advance, we’ll
Suffer greatly before they even occur.⁹
That you move so Beautifully
Takes care of futurism.¹⁰
¹ Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy
² Paul Celan tr. Pierre Joris, In the Rivers
³ Rae Armantrout, In the Future
⁴ Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
⁵ Yukio Mishima tr. Nathan, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
⁶ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
⁷ William Shakespeare, Macbeth
⁸ Matthew 6:34 (King James)
⁹ Paulo Coelho tr. Alan R. Clarke, The Alchemist
¹⁰ Frank O’Hara, Having a Coke with You