SQUIRREL SPOTTING

by Sarah P. Blanchard

Dead Canary Art Print Designed and sold by artfulprovender

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

— T.S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”

Squirrel spotting

A sincere apology for nothing

for doing nothing

for becoming the nothing we have become.

A heartfelt apology in advance

for whatever comes next.

squirrel

Warnings? Of course we had those.

We had our cameras out, recording everything:

grievances, outrages, lies, and the

infinite variations of a canary’s death. We

added our comments to all the

shrill unpleasant alarms

squirrel

raised by popular prophets nodding somberly

at those shrill cries of doom. But too many alarms

were smothered beneath clever ridicule

squirrel

about painted clowns and bitcoin plunges.

Yes we raised shields. But only a few

too late, too slowly, and only after

reading the manual twice. Always

mistaking shields for weapons

squirrel

we searched instead for the familiar

smiling faces of traitors who counseled

easy appeasements, comfortable conciliations

squirrel

while murderers performed overtime.

We were warned about the sky falling

squirrel

but we’re good now. We’ve got our cameras ready.

Sarah P. Blanchard is the author of the novel Drawn from Life, the story collection Playing Chess with Bulls, and a poetry chapbook titled river, horse, morning. A former instructor of English and writing at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, she writes now from her home in northeastern Connecticut.

CRYPTO RISES FROM THE CRYPT

by Royal Rhodes

AI-generated image from Shutterstock

“The Crypto Comeback” —The Daily, May 21, 2024

The bell tolled for cryptocurrencies,

doomed in its sheer insufficiencies.

But halving came

to goose its game

so bitcoin seduces new licensees.

A trial judge had jailed poor Bankman-Fried,

a name that Dickens, I think, would have tried

for a modern-day Scrooge

as a free-market stooge,

giving Wall Street a bullish new pride.

Investors had cried when their gains bid adieu,

so turned to the courts to argue and sue

with tort after tort.

But now a report

says their payback includes all interest accrued.

Royal Rhodes is retired and is grateful for the Social Security safety-net and government regulations.

SOMEWHERE THERE IS AN ALGORITHM FOR US

by Lauren Wellman

Cartoon by Joe Dator

In a recent blog post, Facebook's vice president for ads, Rob Goldman, argues his platform's users aren't its product. Even though Facebook primarily makes money by selling targeted ads based on what it knows about you, Goldman says that the real product is the ability to connect people—ads merely exist to "fund that experience." —Louise Matsakis, “Facebook’s Targeted Ads Are More Complex Than It Lets, On,” Wired, April 25, 2018

Leverage my every click Facebook, stalk me
Through the virtual world, tangled up in social
bots. I don’t want to disappear and I want
To disappear. You get me, you got me. I’m yours.


Do you know me better than I know myself?
Do you detect my every dopamine shift and predict,
My hungry clicker is ready for a gambling binge
in Vegas? Right now, interjects dope man, fly for $149!


This is how we roll, oh, nerd daddy, it’s on--invisible
soothsayer, insomniac confessor, my dealer.
You know what I like (thumbs up!). That’s why we stay,
candyboy, on good terms. My soul, among billions

of users, a digital refugee spilling its whispers
to data miners for pesos on the bitcoin.


Currently based in Oaxaca, Mexico, Lauren Wellman is a scrivener at Bland Alchemy, Inc.

BITCOIN

by Heather Newman

Bitcoin just passed $8,000. —TechCrunch, November 20, 2017

I’m getting in on it like a circle
in a square, the mystery game
for the digital play, a dig out
of the mines, out of control.
Like Pet Rock. That was
something. Beanie
Babies. Killer. Xbox vs.
PlayStation. Who knew.
Coffee, tea and water.
But Bitcoin is better.
Now that’s fun to say!
Block my chain, this is
better than blowing bubbles.
I’m showing my age.

Heather Newman is an MFA candidate at The New School (NYC.) Her work has appeared in Voices from Here, Vol. II, TheNewVerse.News, The Potomac, Two Hawks Quarterly, Aji Magazine, Matter, Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop and eChook.