The Answering Machine by Jean-Paul L. Garnier

our brains were connected with a wire

quaint, reminiscent of a landline

no one was impressed

short distance telepathy

easily out strode 

satellites circled overhead

ever connecting

 

still, our communication was direct

instantaneous

all this work, this miracle

could have been spoken out loud

to the same effect

so, telepathy went the way

of the answering machine

spending the rest of its days

in a museum of dated tech

 

moving from the future

directly to the past

we leapfrogged like a flip phone 

 

Jean-Paul L. Garnier lives and writes in Joshua Tree, CA where he is the owner of Space Cowboy Books, a science fiction bookstore, independent publisher, and producer of Simultaneous Times podcast. In 2020 his first novella Garbage In, Gospel Out was released, and in 2018 Traveling Shoes Press released Echo of Creation, a collection of his science fiction short stories. He has also released several collections of poetry: Future Anthropology (2018), Odes to Scientists (2019), Betelgeuse Dimming (2020), Utopian Problems (2021), and Time’s Arrow (2022). He is a five-time Elgin Nominee and has also appeared in the 2020 Dwarf Stars anthology, Dark Matter Magazine, Utopia Magazine, and more. He is a regular contributor to DreamFoundry.org’s blog and is the current editor of Star*Line Magazine.

 

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