When I was “in despair” (the dark days
when I actually used such terms)
I noticed the behavior of animals —
  sleep when tired, eat when hungry
That made a lot of sense to me
and yet I felt different
  I felt my humanness too much
No fly ever wonders whether it should make
lots and lots of maggots
  It gives birth on a mound of cat food
or inside the rubbish bin
As far as I know
it’s not worried about overpopulation
or what sort of environment its kids
  will grow up in
My humanness sees me at an art gallery
  watching others
      watching walls
My humanness gives me dark thoughts
of cruel behavior
  You are in the States
a visa glitch and there you remain
  Like Star Trek, I talk to you on a screen
  your face half a second out of sync
with your speech
  I’m in the future
  my Tuesday is already over
and I want to tell you all about it
  to prove my superiority
That lovely conceit of time
  that saw people travel from all over the world
to be in Gisborne
  for the first sunrise
      of the new millennium
  Remember
how we all thought the sewer pipes would burst
  and the criminals would escape
  or something like that
      Y2K packs sent to every household
      because no one knew for certain
      what the numbers 2000 really meant
  Somewhere, people, important people
      cowered in bunkers
          fearing the worst

Therese Lloyd

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Y2K