Science Fiction

for Sonya and Robert Duck! The two of you! Do it in tandem. Flying cars swooping overhead graze pedestrians all the time now. They are driven by driven government agents. The same ones responsible for detentions and identity checks. Duck, I tell you, or you may be one head shorter in stature. And the noise in the city - some claim they have to shout all day to block the noise to hear thoughts. Others have stopped thinking. I met a poet the other day at a coffee bar, he said the words are disappearing because our heads don't have the room to house them. I told him - 'You have to save the words for the rest of us, ' and he just laughed until he started coughing. I left quickly before he started crying. People of all kinds do that. But a doctor told me people's tear ducts atrophy. and all they can do is sob. That is not me. I live for the future, I have hopes lodged deep inside me and they are seeds, each of which contains one promise. I once had a list with all my hopes and promises written on it. But agents doing a routine security sweep took it. They threatened me with a Brain Sweep, but nothing came of it. That's the way things are now: Nothing comes forth from things or speech. It's as if everything is frozen and every person is paralyzed. But don't repeat that, it might get mixed up with rumors of a Revolution, and I could lose my head, or my mind, depending on my punishment. I hardly have anymore the energy to be cautious. In a city in which people in churches curse God, and people in libraries tear pages one by one from books, and people spice their food with curry to disguise the spoilage, and people - Look, at the edge of the neighborhood, the ground is curling and dust is swirling. A wind is blowing across my face. Soon the dust storm will take over our lives.