Michael McInnis Speaks of the Crank Time of Einstein's Trains and the Effects of Light Pollution

Crank Time

There is no 4th
dimension

in crank time
traveling

faster than the
speed of

light no longer
held in

place by gravity
or dreams

of Einstein’s trains
lurching through

fallout shelters and
frigates

that sail too close
to the edge

while the earth keeps
accelerating

and wobbling ever
so slightly

centrifugal forces at
work while

tides churn and wash
as if all

the whales and sea
monsters swim

to one side of the
ocean at once



1962

All there at the
beginning

the inexorable
descent

into a kind of
madness as

if trading green
stamps

for furniture or a
crock pot

never used or that
display lamp

with the bulb that
flickered

and smoked the
pocket

calculator turned
upside down

always reading
7734

and outside the
plate glass

window a mackerel
sky showering

missiles and
rockets



People Living in Caves


people living in caves
return to the

surface crazy the sun
no longer

comforting the moon
no longer

holding any mystery
and the stars

they never recall the
stars as if

light pollution was all
that remained

Michael McInnis lives in Boston and spent six years in the Navy sailing across the Pacific and Indian Oceans to the Persian Gulf three times, chasing white whales and ending up only with madness. He has published poetry and short fiction in Literary Yard, 1947, Dead Snakes, Monkey Bicycle, Cream City Review, 5x5 Singles Club, Facets Magazine, Arshile, Nightmare of Reason, Oak Square, Quimby Quarterly and Version 90.