Twenty-Four Degrees
written by: Dan Leicht
@Deeliopunk
You’ve made it. You’re trending.
Your name is a hashtag on the left side of the screen.
Switch to another site and you’re on the right. You’re big news,
but the clock is ticking. There are fourteen minutes left.
You screenshot it, apply a filter, post it to another site.
This is your year.
Years later the screenshot appears on your home screen,
the memory staring back at you to share and relive.
“Graduate Student Writes Paper Proving Climate Change”
The alliteration is all there. Perfect prose
line each of the thirty single-spaced pages. It’s been six years
since.
Turns out you were wrong.
You look out the window at the endless blizzard,
day sixty-four. It’s mid-July. It hasn’t been over twenty-four degrees
in months.
Coffee. Hot coffee graces the mug that you cusp with both hands.
You set it down to the left of the computer as you check page twenty for typos,
hoping to someday see a new story trending,
“Scientist Creates Snow Melting Lawn Care System”
- Sunday Morning - March 29, 2020
- Waiting Between Pages - February 13, 2020
- Making Memories - November 9, 2019
