Three poems by Spencer Silverthorne

DID SOMEONE REALLY LEAVE MY CAKE OUT IN THE RAIN?

A STATUS FROM ORLANDO IN 2020

Orlando would regard parenthood

as an ongoing performance piece.

They, like everyone else, fear

their permanence in this world.

Their daughter finally gave up

filtering her photos with raccoon

ears. She left England to study film,

after loitering in local panorama.

They only see the world in VR.

They observe the lasting smoke

in tea rooms, where they last

passed as a mask of the crown.

Their daughter later asks to open

their grounds and lives for a spread

in an interior design magazine. She

could use the cash. She is tired

from PA-ing for global superheros.

California is still so expensive.

Orlando has exhausted narrative.

Everything begins to feel fractal.

They presume the worst.

They make plans to embed

the family into a portrait of code,

if there be anything left to plug.

Spencer Silverthorne's chapbook Premium Brawn was a finalist in the Bateau Press Keel Chapbook Contest. His work is published or forthcoming in Assaracus, Bending Genres, The Birds We Piled Loosely, Permafrost Magazine, Tammy, Vagabond City, Yes Poetry and others. Originally from Philadelphia, he lives in Limpopo Province, South Africa where he teaches English in a primary school.