It is out of my nature to be here

and when I tell you there’s no time 

I mean we ran out of sun 

we ran out of front summer stoops

we ran on empty leaders

In the future                we ended

we made a plan in a worldly oil and burned 

louder books. we turned a field of blades / fireflies *

to jagged potholes

In the future, we have learned to survive

so well, we have made even better inventions of kill

better inventions of distraction 

you could see it coming from distant dimensions

Of course, there is war in the future   there has always been war

War in our unannounced arrivals 

and war in our division

and war in our delusional collections of living things, dead things

and we never satisified

We never mastered solar energy and the haze has become filter

The whales sing together to protect themselves 

and we  are no longer welcome in the ocean

I was sent for

Because I thought there was no time.    Return

in the texture of my mothers hands             a timestamp I stare at often

I remember the sky changing to orange asthma

I remember before that it reflected the ocean

I remember and no one else could,     so they sent me back 

I had a hand in capitalism       but that went out of business

I had a hand in global warming and that got out of hand quick

I had a hand in the soil   all to return

to an abundance of hours

falling in a vibratory love.

to witness: 

all the astonished eyes

the ant the same color as the redwood

the grass the same color as the grasshopper

the cadillac vining down lake shore to the isley brothers

an invitation to sunday praise

I’m back          after so much has gone wrong 

before all that has crumbled 

in the name of our names

our stone names and neon letters        in ruin

I have been sent back here 

with urgency as the last hope

to gather nectarines for a soft walk

to lather hands in lavender soap

to kiss you, to kiss you, to kiss you

I need you to know                             there is still more time 

---

Karl Michael Iglesias is a Puerto Rican actor, director and writer from Milwaukee, WI, who now resides in Brooklyn, NY. His poetry can be read in the Florida Review, RHINO, the Brooklyn Review, the Madison Review, the Hong Kong Review and the Academy of American Poets, to name a few. Karl is the author of the poetry chapbooks CATCH A GLOW and The Bounce—both available from Finishing Line Press. karlmichaeliglesias.com