Driving down Arlington Avenue
to get the car smog checked
passing the houses
pretty big one
after the other after
the next
some with solar panels
on the roof spreading
out like a contagious disease
infecting the house next door
and nearly every one
with a chimney
most with two
a few with three
and immediately I think
how the houses curtail
or supplement gas
and electric heating
wondering where they get the wood
and then I remember
how just recently
we saw sci fi vision
of the future on tv
the great intergalactic
space ship the camera
going down into the engine room
the great furnace doors open
a pile of coal on the floor
sweating workers shoveling
into the fiery depths
we laughed uproariously
to see the revelation
of interstellar power source
before the time jump
took us through a new dimension
and I thought while laughing still
how sensitively generous
the thoughtful authors
bridged me from the last
my century
into the future now
to let me know
there’s still a place
for me