POETRY PROMPTS
ethan s. evans

This prompt is inspired by Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ M Archive. The best way to complete it is to first read Gumbs’ luminous text.

Think of a future where the gulf stream has stalled. National borders have shifted or dissolved completely. Whatever civilization is now has morphed into something we cannot, for better or for worse, yet envision.

Write a poem that a cultural anthropologist will unearth. How might you describe a bad tinder date to someone in a post-digital world? What will your credit score mean in two hundred years? Has the species of owl that perches outside your window gone extinct? Write your poem for a denizen of a world you cannot yet imagine.

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