The year is 2060.

When I was a kid the future was everything. All the films about flying cars by the year 2000 and cool toys and transportation. Lightning speed teleportation. Meanwhile the world freaked out at midnight thinking this new technology would end itself because we didn’t know if the computer knew what to do after 1999. We didn’t know if they could process. That’s how dumb we were. We were afraid a computer we created wouldn’t compute that 1 + 1999 = 2000 on a digital calendar. How ugly it was that our intelligence allowed these reindeer games, and for the first time, very publicly.

It happened to all of us. All of whose parents didn’t stay together, all of us who didn’t have enough money growing up, all of us who were afraid to say anything without being yelled at, all of us who needed to feel anything after a lifetime of never knowing the world before the internet.

We stole. We stole here and there from companies that didn’t support human rights. We stole from companies that had enough money but didn’t pay their workers enough. We stole food, clothes, art supplies so we could sustain being alive before technology took that, too. It was two decades of job losses, the worst homeless crisis anyone had seen. The real aftermath of a worldwide plague.

I spent my early 20s watching people I cared about die overnight or over the years. I watched them suffer mysterious ailments.

Public shame and fear turned us into one of those trending TV shows. We always said “how could that happen?” But it did. It was gradual, that’s why we didn’t notice it.

It started with fingerprints to unlock your phone, Face ID. It started with identifying ourselves before we knew who we were. It was the left. It was the right. It was the undecided. It was the world.

Door cameras to communicate.
Online groups sharing videos and stories of strangers.
Misinformation.

America armed Israel as America had always done out of guilt for turning away the boats of Jewish families begging for help from the US before WWII.  
The world begged for a ceasefire. Russia sent submarines to Cuba and no one noticed. America put their big show on to distract the world while they silently began the process.

We were all old now. We didn’t harm anyone physically. We just needed help while our country funded wars around the world so we did what we had to while we thought the government was occupied.

Elon Musk started buying television networks after social media. That’s when it really became locked in. And more billionaires followed the same. There was nothing we could do. Years went by. More and more people forgot what things were like. Advertisements were so subtle. Paying $30 to brush our teeth with dirt after a lifetime of baking soda, fluoride, and mint oil. It was so confusing.


There aren’t many of the generation that didn’t end their own lives left but after us the suicide rates did go down. They started putting a research chemical in the water. 2-oxo-pce. Trace amounts of it did bring up people’s spirits without triggering psychosis and by the time we found out no one really cared because they felt better.  It’s weird now to think it was a good idea. Sometimes I couldn’t figure out if I just finally gave up or the water made it easier to accept life as it was.  

When they came for me that must have been why I felt I deserved it.

They had it all on camera. They created AI to scan for repeating thefts. They counted the costs. We couldn’t trust AI to ban accounts promoting hate, but we trust it to recognize faces.

It was something we worried about initially but there were so many other things to consider in the world, it honestly didn’t seem as bad in comparison.

The trials were fast.  A split second snapshot of everything you took rapidly passing a screen with a print out of your debt. It wasn’t always you in the photos, though. There was no way to argue with the algorithm. It clocked me for a Mazarati. I don’t even drive.

Of course we didn’t have the money.  It was always an insane amount,  because the technology was a barracuda and we changed so much. You just had to accept it once they showed up.

Any crime committed, if documented, can be used at any time against you. Statute of limitations no longer existed.

Disease was everywhere and they needed a way to combat it faster. No ethics in science and progress. The public was worried and we were the morally corrupt past. Justice must be served. Didn’t matter if you killed someone or you stole 10,000 diapers. I just happened to be one of the people who couldn’t afford the things I wanted.  

They poisoned us. They infected us. They killed all the people in prison before they got to us but they learned so much doing that only a fourth of us died when it was our turn.

That’s pretty impressive.  

One day I was checking the mail and it felt like a month later every political leader transferred power or position. Everything lined up perfectly for a total control of the people in what they called saving humanity. Moral superiority won but for some reason it was always against the people who needed the most help. They’d find any reason to use your body and be able to rationalize it with a nation they instilled nothing but fear and helplessness into.

You never really made contact with anyone again. You spent your life with robots checking your blood, your vitals, feeding you, bathing you, drugging you, analyzing you, and keeping you alive as long as they could so somewhere in the world the results of testing could be shared to bring hope and promise for the next generations that cures could exist and that they were fortunate for our sacrifices.

The food was good. While we were shunned for petty crimes there was a large amount of money donated to keeping us comfortable. I think it was so the public would feel less guilty.

It was catered to what would extend our lives but still flavorful. Roasted chicken, low salt, lots of herbs and hearty greens. Fruit was always ripe. Healthy amount of nuts and seeds. Cheese once a week. We had endless access to literature and the news. Best medication. Gym equipment. It was like prison but you never left your room and you were taken care of. But you didn’t have love or ***. You didn’t feel anything anymore. Maybe it’s the water talking but it was kind of nice to not think for myself in some way. Realistically they didn’t really have a choice but to keep us well managed. We were going to be the last line of subjects. They had to keep us alive, the rest of the population didn’t do anything wrong.

The only comfort that could be taken in those boxes we lived in was knowing at least we died for something after a lifetime of watching senseless death from a screen. My body was used for science. I had a purpose. I committed crimes I needed to because I lived in a terrible world. The new world was better. It was kinder. I don’t hold it against the living. They only knew what they were told.

We were survivors when we were young, but by 65-70 you were something the new world couldn’t comprehend. Lack of morals. No respect for the law. They didn’t understand it was different back then.

Social media became learning platforms. There was no discourse. No name calling. They saw what was left behind and assumed there was no explanation other than we were just bad people and corporations had been working so hard to give them a livable future and maintain a habitable earth.

My generation was to be the last one that experienced the experiments. They did eventually find a cure for everything. Depression,  every flu, blood diseases, ***** failure, cancers. They didn’t use it for profit. It’s what I always wanted. We all wanted it. We wish we had it sooner.

But the day I died, humanely euthanized, something changed. The news was on. They found water on the moon last year, raving about how pure and untouched it was, and started transporting it back, and all the people who could afford it got sick with something we’ve never known before and I realized it didn’t matter what I did or didn’t do when I was young. I deserved to try moon water before I left, not them. That was the future I was promised.

There is a constellation that knows you well, a piece of heaven that saw you take your first steps,
a clusters of stars that watched you fall asleep and hushed you when you dreaded the burst of darkness overhead.
They knew your story.
They sang your lullabies.
They fished out the moon out of the lake and washed off its impurities so you can hold soft light in your hands.
They braved the rabid bites of winter so they can fill your pockets with the sun.
They’ve always wanted you to sail North, away from the wasteland polluted with emptiness, upstream in a kayak, where the lakes sing your name.
Until like most stars, you dipped your toes in the pond and burnt out.
The stars they call you—reignite once again.

As a little girl
I was thrown into a science lab for an experiment
As I sat in the corner of the dusty, white walls
Thinking about what my childhood could've been without this detriment
And I was too scared to move
The only words that could come out of my mouth was a lament

And each week the scientists would open the door
And carry me to a new place
And then they'd run tests on me
Sticking needles into my arm and face
Then I'd be returned to the dusty, white walls once more
Being put down on the ground with the coldest embrace

And one day after a failed experiment
I was put back in the room, poorly patched
And my vision blurred, my eyes ringed
And my body slowly crawled to the door and latched
And my dying body pushed it slightly, and it opened
And with my final breath, I realized there was never a lock attached.

There once was a beautiful goddess that was burdened by fighting in a war between gods. There, she met an arrogant god, who wanted to serve authority over a land the goddess loved. To protect her land, she killed the god, but was eternally cursed by him, so in the end, nobody would remember her. Nevertheless, the people that lived in the nation she saved venerated her, making the goddess their new found leader. Since many more gods and goddesses were killed off during this time, some losing memory of her as well because of the curse, she decided to retire as the goddess she had been and remain as a mortal. The cursed one would live in solitude, but still complete her duties as a leader. She had promised herself to never have any true relations with anyone, for it was not worth them losing memories of her. One day, she was tasked with a speech to her citizens, that would only temporarily remember her. While walking through the streets, a tired, female merchant bumped into the cursed. The cursed helped the merchant, who was struck with fear after walking into her very own leader. The kind merchant then exchanged her thanks, and the cursed one continued onto her speech. While she spoke about miscellaneous affairs in the nation, the citizens stared at her in awe. Suddenly, a god towered down on the nation. The mortal, still possessing her goddess-like strength, though not in the form anymore, calmed her citizens down by promising to protect them and everything they had achieved. Oh, but the cursed was terrified, for she did not know the worth of everything, even herself. One day, she stood in a large field, looking up at the sky, hoping for an idea, any idea, that would come to her on how to stop the violent god. Her worried expression caught the eye of another god, who floated down from the clouds. He had the kindest eyes she had ever seen, and the cursed fell in love with the beautiful god. The two talked, and he helped her come up with a plan to stop the violent god. Even more in love, the cursed one and the kind god parted with smiles. The following week, the nation's leader was tasked with yet another speech, this one to talk about the war. While walking through the same street, she noticed the kind merchant from before. The cursed one waved at the merchant, but she returned a confused expression and walked away. The cursed one paid no attention and went to her speech. Not as many citizens showed up, but she assumed it was because they were seeking shelter. As the cursed was about to give her speech, the violent god demanded to fight right then and there. She followed him to the field where she met the kind god, the one she unfortunately loved. The god began his attacks, but the former goddess just barely dodged them. However, her mortal qualities could never suffice to the one of a god, and she began to falter. In the distance, she saw the kind god. She yelled and called his name as she fought. He had a puzzled expression on his face as he asked the cursed one if he knew her. Her heart broke as she realized the curse had finally started to have its effect, and he had forgotten her. Frozen in place, the violent god put all of his strength into the final blow which killed the former goddess. As she lay there, dead and heartbroken, her soul materialized into one of a ghost. She watched the violent god seize her people and nation from a distance. And she watched for years, as one by one, they had forgotten she ever existed.

He walks down the hall,
With a crown twisted in thorn,
Painted with blood,
And spit on with scorn.
More precious than Solomen’s diadem,
Dabbed with jewels of blood,
Yet still taken with love
To serve every one of us.
His welts are deemed as spangles,
And they’ll tell His story
Crown of thorns twisted in horror,
Yet worn with His glory

I wonder if your care was ever true,
In waking hours, I never knew.
Our last words linger, lost in dreams,
Where nothing is as real as it seems.

You gave me a mint, cool and sweet,
But in the silence, we did not meet.
If only I could hear your voice once more,
To say goodbye, like before.

But dreams are fading, soft and slow,
And now, my dear, I let you go.

In a world of voices, I stand alone,
With a heart open wide, my seeds have been sown.
I hold no grudges, no spite in my chest,
For every soul dances, seeking their best.

I cherish the laughter, the stories they share,
Each life a tapestry, woven with care.
Why question my heart, is it light as the air?
I prefer to uplift, to nurture, to spare.

Let me witness the triumphs, the dreams come alive,
In the warmth of connection, our spirits can thrive.
So let go of the burdens, the weight of the past,
For in kindness and joy, true freedom is cast.

No hate in my heart, just a wish for the light,
To see all souls flourish, to nurture the night.
So I stand in the silence, a witness, a stranger,
In a world full of love, where all hearts can mend.