Required Modifications for the Transhuman
By Paul Vermeersch
The next Earth will require more of us.
Give us chromatophores for our skin,
for camouflage, for semaphore;
and long, sensitive ears
to radiate the heat. I want to be
tiger-striped in seconds.
I want to hear you coming first.
Give us tendrils to drink the soil, and glorious
elongated limbs, like tentacles akin
to jellyfish, to explore the more
[ looking up ☝] ephemeral frontiers.
We’ll have that spooky eye shine to see
what the depths conceal in wrecks of
the old life, and glimpse the new life in a burst.
And give us membranes to seal each orifice
from drought. Though I hear its nicer in
Antarctica, it’s surely a poor
option for the non-swimmers.
I’ll be all in salamander and you’ll be
in bright cuttlefish. The polar EMF beckons us:
Come darlings, newborns, quench your Atlantean thirst.
Paul Vermeersch is a poet, multimedia artist, creative writing professor, and literary editor. He teaches at Sheridan College and is the senior editor of Wolsak & Wynn Publishing. His next book, Shared Universe: New and Selected Poems 1995–2020, will be published this fall.