Friday 3 September 2021

Once upon a time and space there was a planet

with a geometrically expanding population

and a finite resource base. Instead of telling people

why there were so many and dramatic changes

suddenly, it was decided to REDACTED carbon

credits and abortion, homosexuality REDACTED

mobilising children to demand REDACTED

so that aggregating interlocking

of directorate just said that cow farts

didn't want new airports. Sometimes it's expedient to

say that history was your own idea, preserving

thus a shred of dignity. We got so idealistic,

don't you know. REDACTED. Marshall the influencers! “Wake

up the china!” “Wake up, Neo”. Wake up,

Everyman. Ah, winter. Time to sting the drones.

When we touch starfish they just liquify.

Even sardines have gotten tired of us.

Aha! We know! We'll put us under house

arrest and that will keep her very well.

The Science Is Uh Settled (which it never is of course)

as raggedly totalitarian decline declined

to mention, thus REDACTED silence fell REDACTED

*This is the last poem finished in New Zealand before fleeing to a freer place; and it is an appropriate end to BC AD NJ, a collection including substantial portions of this online blog portfolio but excluding some thought to be constructive but superfluous sketches or otherwise insufficiently worthy pieces; it was composed between 2006 and 2022 in New Zealand prior to fleeing the country and consists of three distinct cycles, as the title suggests.  I intend upon uploading the text of BC AD NJ to the internet archive once it has undergone further polishing. Anyone wishing to see the latest (currently the 10th) draft of the book itself can get one from trent.appleman@gmail.com in the meantime on request. Sharing rights for the book and its drafts are exactly the same: keep the book/draft sharing rights disclaimer and one's name intact and don't make a profit from it, but otherwise feel free to share at will.