After I Traded My Voice Box

I got an automatic upgrade and a choice
every two years. They claimed to keep it
on ice. No one can confirm that
because who would want it back in this day
and age? The thumb has evolved
to such an extent that it will grow
back if lopped off or worn out,
a renewable resource. Thumb fields
are strictly prohibited though,
as are all cash crops, especially those
from which bouquets can be made.
At the center where contracts are not
negotiated but signed through retinal
scan for authentication of identity,
certain rights are waived, decisions
made. In the future, the men
holding all the dead voice boxes
will be given a summons,
some say, type or talk,
speak or kneel.

April Salzano teaches college writing in Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband and two sons. She recently finished her first collection of poetry, for which she is seeking a publisher. Her work has appeared in journals such as Poetry Salzburg, Convergence, Ascent Aspirations, The Camel Saloon, Bluestem, Centrifugal Eye, Weekenders Magazine, Deadsnakes, Montucky Review, Visceral Uterus, Conium Review, Crisis Chronicles, Windmills, Inclement, Salome, and is forthcoming in Poetry Quarterly, Literary Hatchet, and The New Writer. The author also serves as co-editor at Kind of a Hurricane Press (www.kindofahurricanepress.com).

Find more by April Salzano in the Author Index.

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