i am starting to think about the future

just as everyone else is closing up shop

dreaming destruction, annihilation, war

i am starting to think about the future

and living further than paycheck to paycheck

hand to mouth, month to month, i am starting to

plan stuff out, in advance, maybe start saving

see i’m starting to see a future, see it

through, let myself move toward a possible life,

a family, babies even, and it’s good

to want it, i am alive right now, and all

living things have a right to keep keeping on,

with trees and forests, food and love, i have hope

and i should have it, i have ambitions and

you should too, with your plights and gripes, your gallows

humor, your misdirected fear, your casual

comments about just ending it all. no dice,

no comet coming, no swift apocalypse

arm pulls down the lever for you. it is you

alive in your private field, you alone in your crowd of many,

you in thrall to your wanting heart, you in there in your little body.