Jim Ross
Bill Gates in Reverse
At a raw-food retreat,
there was a part-time hobo
with one toe glazed in capitalism.
On day five of communal sleeping
with stiff cauliflower farts,
she needed to send a “business” email.
Did not anticipate she would come to sit
in the centre of a sacred circle, connected –
by hands,
shamed,
as we hummed to the bees
for permission to switch on the Wi-Fi.
The leader in hemp robes swarmed
the amber lit space bellowing:
the bees said yes!
Bless a forcefield of energy to protect them! Ommmm.
His hilltop finca vibrated like a hive
as I imagined myself Bill Gates
in reverse, which seemed to work.
For the ecosystem did not collapse,
the girl sent her email in rational
horror, and the sweet sun rose again the next morning.
How bizarre! I mused, whilst feeding tuna
to the boss man’s vegan cat,
before ditching another day of sprouted lentils
on the first bus to Lisbon, where the air buzzed
with fresh donuts,
and ringtones,
and on my walk from the station to the hostel,
I counted five dead bees.
Carson Wolfe (they/them) is a poet from Manchester, U.K. They are a parent to two children with a third on the way. Carson writes their poetry sat on Lego, in a tipi built between sofas, or if they are lucky, in the bike shed. They are an Aurora prize winner with a dozen publications including Fourteen Poems, Stone of Madness Press, and Kissing Dynamite. Their debut chapbook on queer family making is forthcoming with Sledgehammer Lit in 2022.
Jim Ross jumped into creative pursuits in 2015 after a rewarding public health research career in hopes of resuscitating his long-neglected right brain. With graduate degree from Howard University, in the past six years he’s published nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and photography in over 150 journals on four continents. Publications include 580 Split, Bombay Gin, Burningword, Columbia Journal, Hippocampus, Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Lunch Ticket, Manchester Review, Stonecoast, The Atlantic, and Typehouse. He’s published photo essays on such topics as street dogs and their human companions (Kestrel); the Berkeley Springs Apple Butter Festival (Litro); escaping into pilgrimage on The Way (New World Writing); and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington (Wordpeace). He’s also published photo essays using old postcards on such topics as the Postcard Debate on Women’s Suffrage (Barren); the postal origins of text messaging (Ilanot Review); and children as refugees and asylum seekers (Palaver, forthcoming). A nonfiction piece led to appearances in a documentary limited series broadcast internationally. Jim and his wife—parents of two health professionals and grandparents of five preschoolers—split their time between city and mountains.