RELEVANCE

RELEVANCE IS NO ANSWER

Relevance
Is the prize of the scared
Relevance is the voice
of our parents
broadcast, old
through the newest of media
exhorting
“Run! Run! Run to survival?”
And, of course,
Mother would say that.
She love us, so much.
But the age that comes
is not made for little advances
pivots made generations at a time
mom and pop shops
and the dream of America in agriculture,
or the dusty offices
of life-long jobs,
life-long compromise.

No, tomorrow
tomorrow is more.
Tomorrow is queer,
planes shifting like 3D film
with no glasses,
second-class comic books
smears on newsprint with words of Powerful Men.

No, tomorrow is
What we can imagine,
Not what we can predict
from within the shackles
of even the most well-intentioned past.

Our work will be equal parts genius
and slavery, a truth
we have to look in the eye
at a scale we’ve never imagined
uneasy, a first date between us
and the Future.

Our work will be that of
informed hope
desparate pragmatism,
Stopping to listen,
love on first dates.

Our future will be created,
not discovered. Our future will be
painted, not calculated,
with billions of hearts
in filthy, digital
imperfections. Purpose,
Not fear, is the currency of love.

—MJ Petroni