everything was fireproof and temperate
and the sky was whole and holding water
space was clean and time was slow
everyone loved and believed in love or
believed love would come they wondered
they cried but their tears were water
for uncooked seeds
everyone was truthful and their names were
familiar and their faces were familiar and
their bodies were familiar and beautiful and
everything and everyone was safe and healthy and
money trickled down from the sky like rain and
they never heard a scream
no one screamed
everywhere was quiet and good and there were
no whispers on the wind
the earth’s crust held its tongue and the air was clean
and energy was clean and the ocean and the
coral reefs were clean
and every god watched closely
but not too closely
and they all went to church and school
and were the same
and their enemies were the same
and their ears were poor
and their eyes were poor and their mouths
had not yet acquired the taste of salt and blood
everyone told themselves
they were fine and even if they were not fine
they would be fine one day if they used their voices
minds and hands and they would
love and be loved and they were fine and
surely everyone else was fine

Shannon Cates, a UX designer living in Annapolis, Maryland, finds comfort in rainy days and the written word. When not crafting digital experiences, she’s immersed in poetry, often with her cat by her side. Her work has been published in Humana Obscura, Emerge Literary Journal, and Bodega Magazine among other journals.