FUTURISMS PAST

The futurisms of the past
vast visions of human betterment
cheerful factories with puffing smokestacks
long assembly lines mass producing labour saving gadgets
no more need for heavy human toil
or servants
we’ll only work a few hours each day
commuting via autogyros or along delicate roadways
spiralling among skyscrapers
endless parkways parks but no parking somehow
happy families with an apple tree in the yard
living in an eternal sunny peace

The past radiant in its struggles songs and themes
but distorted by the present’s false reality
is all those times that will never come again

The past had visions of a future for us all
not just our own mean plans for comfy senility
a past when good things were getting better all the time
leaders spoke to hopes not fears
and we at least had pretty lies to believe in
a past with a better future than the present

RECENT ACCUMULATIONS AND APPROPRIATED VOICES, Kalayaan Publications, 1997