Alternate Timelines


fresh from reading Turtledove 
I Google my name 
checking to see
if my website is well promoted
jarred by long list
I peruse headlines 
seems I'm a gynecologist 
in Aurora Colorado 
a make-up artist 
in London
insurance sales-person 
in Volga, SD. 
a professor of Arabic literature  
in Montreal. 
last June a twenty-four-year-old me 
was found dead in a dumpster 
in Lansing
identified by unusual tattoos 
the sister 
who disapproves
will raise my three year old
my sister disapproves of me  
or is it this other sister
there is Arabic literature on my shelf 
was this where I went 
when things went wrong 
or maybe right 
or is this not the life 
I'm suppose to be living

~

words: Michelle Hartman, Texas (website)
image: 'Bygones' - Jean Morris, UK (tasting rhubarb)

~

another alternate line: Map II (#20)