our brains were connected with a wire
quaint, reminiscent of a landline
no one was impressed
short distance telepathy
easily out strode
satellites circled overhead
ever connecting
still, our communication was direct
instantaneous
all this work, this miracle
could have been spoken out loud
to the same effect
so, telepathy went the way
of the answering machine
spending the rest of its days
in a museum of dated tech
moving from the future
directly to the past
we leapfrogged like a flip phone
Jean-Paul L. Garnier lives and writes in Joshua Tree, CA where he is the owner of Space Cowboy Books, a science fiction bookstore, independent publisher, and producer of Simultaneous Times podcast. In 2020 his first novella Garbage In, Gospel Out was released, and in 2018 Traveling Shoes Press released Echo of Creation, a collection of his science fiction short stories. He has also released several collections of poetry: Future Anthropology (2018), Odes to Scientists (2019), Betelgeuse Dimming (2020), Utopian Problems (2021), and Time’s Arrow (2022). He is a five-time Elgin Nominee and has also appeared in the 2020 Dwarf Stars anthology, Dark Matter Magazine, Utopia Magazine, and more. He is a regular contributor to DreamFoundry.org’s blog and is the current editor of Star*Line Magazine.
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