I used to live in the here and now

Living in the present is widely promoted

Do not spend all day looking back

Waiting for the future is wasting your time

You should only focus on living in the now

But how do we define the now

Is it this calendar year

Is it all day today or just this hour

Is now this minute or this second

The smaller we make the now

The faster it becomes history

Future nows arrive much sooner

It gets harder and harder to live in the now

If the now becomes infinitesimally small

The merest billionth of a microsecond or less

So small that you cannot measure it

All you have left is past or future

As your brain constructs a sentence to speak

You are focusing on future words

While making them relevant to past words

All your words are either history or future

You might think you are reading my poem right now

But you actually started reading it historically

If you really want to be reading this poem in real time

I will write and transmit it to you at some future time

Do you come here often?

its a bright sunny day in the year 2095

the city of New York is quiet at street level

few vehicles travel on roads and most are pedestrianized

everybody has access to a fleet of personal flying taxis

John decides to visit his brother in Boston

he tells his watch to book him a flying taxi

go to bay 7 on level 104 flashes on his watch

he takes the high speed elevator and steps into the four seater vehicle

there are no controls because its totally automated

John fastens his seat belt as the electric motors hum

he does not bother to look out of the window

the novelty of flying from a rooftop was long ago forgotten

John talks to his bother on the video screen

40 minutes later his air taxi is docking

moments later he is with his brother Gerald

there are no windows in his apartment

the walls are all giant screens that can produce any vista

today it shows tropical beaches and a deep blue ocean

let me get you a cold beer says Gerald

he simply barks his order to a dispensing machine

nobody buys ingredients or makes anything themselves these days

food and drink items are assembled instantly by atomic 3D printers

lets watch the game now says Gerald

the screens on the wall transform to show a football game 

the virtual realty is indistinguishable from the real thing

crowd noises are piped in with aromas of stale beer and hot dogs

people used to drive cars through traffic to watch these games

the players still perform at a stadium

with only cameras and drones watching

Gerald and John cheer as their team scores

after the game the room is transformed into a night club

3D images of pretty girl robots dancing fill the screens

she looks gorgeous says John pointing to a tall girl

lets invite her to join us says Gerald

a door opens and in walks a beautiful humanoid robot

she smiles as John passes her a glass of champagne

Gerald asks her do you come here often?