Four Poems
CHATTY FOSSILS
When you dig us
out of the shale
you'll see our legs
mattered a lot
you'll sense
the tilt of our pelvises
throwing all that weight
on our heads
and how we carried it
striding forward
storming citadels
our erect posture
domesticating
the known world
and us
staying on our feet
amid the debris
even as our data
was going
up in smoke
but how will you read
our late style
where we're packed
inside these lit-up boxes
never given our due
what we had
taken from us.
*
CROWDSOURCED AUTOBIOGRAPHY
We were a murmuration of billions
rising in unpredictable gusts
from the human lagoon,
our numbers so huge
that the fact I was born
without a sense of history
wasn’t, by itself, fatal.
I got my horoscope done
and it turns out
that just at my birth
bots were beginning to stir.
In hindsight,
this makes perfect sense:
mid-20th century,
electricity mature,
fuel everywhere,
the lagoon never so ripe
for serious cherrypicking
niches within niches
no one could have dreamed up
without the bots.
Soon the data hoses
were spewing full bore,
which meant keeping track
was not a job
for mortals anymore.
But as long as you knew
what day it was
there'd still be
a puncher's chance
your experience was real.
*
BOOM
Nobody's perfect
but people aren't stupid.
Human knowledge
may have gone boom
but going boom
is a thing
that happens,
dinosaurs at Chicxulub,
tulips under Dutch speculators,
AI is going boom now
and the heat emanating
from those server farms
is going to lay
the global supply
of quiet nights
to waste
as we lie thinking
we can't stay this stupid.
Meanwhile our unmeant programs
float beyond capture.
Whoever said nobody's perfect
didn't know just how right
they were going to be.
*
TO THE FUTURE
November 6, 2024
The totals aren't all in
but what's certain is
the sun is setting
out here on Grant
next to where Lincoln
dead ends into it.
Two of the more
courageous souls
who ever got elected.
If the arc of justice
is too long
to live through
that doesn't mean
it's not worth
living.
Bob Perelman
Bob Perelman has published over 15 volumes of poetry, most recently The Future of Memory (Roof Books) and Ten to One: Selected Poems (Wesleyan University Press). His critical work focuses on poetry and modernism. His critical books are The Marginalization of Poetry: Language Writing and Literary History (Princeton University Press) and The Trouble with Genius: Reading Pound, Joyce, Stein, and Zukofsky (University of California Press). He has edited Writing/Talks (Southern Illinois University Press), a collection of talks by poets.
Alberto Regueira
Alberto Regueira, born in 1994 in Havana, Cuba, is a visual artist currently living and working in Havana. His primary focus is painting, though he also explores printmaking, and drawing.
He began his studies in 2011 at the “San Alejandro” Academy of Visual Arts, where he experimented with sculpture, printmaking, and installation. In 2016, he enrolled at the Superior Institute of Art (ISA), concentrating solely on painting. In 2020, he completed his graduation and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Arts.
His artwork serves as a narrative expression of esoteric themes, weaving analogies and symbols into a rich tapestry of meanings that connect the everyday with the mystical. His painting style centers on the oil technique and draws inspiration from classic painting landscapes, infused with surrealistic elements.
Regueira has showcased his work in numerous exhibitions, both in Cuba and internationally, including in Switzerland and the United States.