Tonight's Poet Corner: Being Impractical

Being Impractical
by Belinda Toddie

I want a world

without presidential elections,
without fears of fascists or demagogues,
with amber flowing copiously into glasses
that never lose their sheen no matter how much
you drink from them. I want a world that

toasts to life and happiness and shedding
the fear of regret and dystopia like a too heavy
coat on a climate change-warped day. This is

a world I dream of and wish for and desire
and panic about, and as the anxiety drips
from my hair in the shower, I let the water drag
me into a universe where the stars light my path

to a galaxy where there is no pain
or desperation
or populism
or hopelessness
or chaos.