Find the illustrated version here.
DYSTOPIAN NOVEL WITH ME AS THE CENTRAL CHARACTER
in the future
everyone in the world is depressed;
it is known as the global downbuzz
kissing has become lowbrow art
theatre is generously funded
and is performed on outdoor plinths
so high
that no one has to watch
in the future you can have surgery done
to invert your eyeballs
and rig lights on the underside of your skull
in the future
people tell the truth—
they tell it energetically and all the time
it is almost grotesque……….
in the future
during sex
couples scream
the names of other people over and over until climax
and then they hold each other and cry
in the future
what youths do at parties is
they just get together and hurt!
wow
like physically
with injuries and stuff
new injuries
in the future
at cafes and restaurants
instead of a steady hum of chat
such as we in the present day
are accustomed to
there is a sort of
… grating sound
everyone contributes their own groan
and finds that it builds a sense of community
and where
are the children?
in the future
they are educating themselves and each other
they are gathering in town squares and on the banks of rivers,
at intersections, on hills, under bridges and in the gardens of strangers
and they are just watching…
and making notes
what else
oh
in the future people embrace the aging process—
beauty products contain more acid
and in the past in the future
people began a practice
of pulling out their adult teeth at twenty-first birthdays
they would then gift them to city councils
who used the teeth to build great monuments to peace
in the future this practice continues but with less anaesthetic
as for the monuments:
they have got so tall
one other thing I know about the future
is that in the future I am dead
the coroner’s report says I buried myself
under one tonne of bean bag beans
and asphyxiated
