The Revelation of Kate Gosselin, as Revealed to John Connor from the “Terminator” Movies

(After the painting “Shoot the Stork” by Irving Phillips)

You speak of futures
and I’ll speak of storks –
ugly birds, descending
with a lumbering grace,
soaring thermal currents,
angel wings spread wide,
casting the sun into shadow.

Men with cameras came and built
a house composed of camera lenses.
They tattooed Nielsen ratings
onto my children’s necks.

My marriage became
cracked wallpaper,
discarded in the exodus
of birds and cameras
pushed by the wind
to some other miracle,
leaving me dancing
to hold their focus.

You’re speaking future tense
while I’m dissolving
into strangers’ living rooms –

you, oracle, for whom the future is pencil lead;
you, with Apocalypse dripping from your tongue:

When you vanish into the future,
please, leave the gun behind.