The guide to nine utopias - VI - Technological

The guide to nine utopias


VI -- Technological

PROTOCOL HELLO from all of us
at central-server-slash-breakfast-dot-show:
it's T-equals-zero. PROTOCOL NEWS: fuss
in binary-heart upgrade fiasco
spreads to top organ-manufacturer
FolkTech whose spokesman Bernard Ninety-Three
said, in a prepared statement, that fracture
in love-compatible machinery

was common even in the olden-days.
For those of you with two, or three, or eight
true loves the message is: keep cool; don't call,
but reschedule your dates to keep them all
apart; and don't use 'auto' near a singles' bar.
PROTOCOL NEXT: upgrade secrets of the stars...

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The guide to nine utopias - V - Emotional

The guide to nine utopias


V -- Emotional

My therapist's receptionist's name label
says: Hi, my other self is Kristin,
and I am Jane. She's cataleptic; unable
to show that she's at home--no analyst in
the place either. I scratch my appointment
from in her book and go to look for group
up on the seventh floor. It's poignant
how I now recognise each different troupe

of troubled patients from the varied wails
that leak out of their room. Such sordid tales
I've told and heard behind these doors. Touching
ones as well of course but, oddly, I clutch
the most disturbing ones--collect them. Sad
but I'm well adjusted to the slightly mad.

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The guide to nine utopias - IV - Economic

The guide to nine utopias


IV -- Economic

A small minority of customers
have never taken up a special offer
of any sort. Not even when preferred
and given one-time ultimate no-bother
saving packs at seventy-five percent
off the normal commission-free list price.
I mean, is this nice? I try not to resent
their uncooperativity. We've spiced

the deals as far as we're allowed. I'm proud
of our talents, but we're under a cloud
here; quotas are at risk. It is my life:
the science and art of sales. My lovely wife
won't hear the word "failure". We are undone,
so... in your sample case you'll find a gun...

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