science fiction triple feature in poetry

the beauty of science fiction is
you’re writing about things
that probably haven’t happened
that maybe can never happened but
at least haven’t happened yet
so your metaphors can transcend
the readers’ personal experience

when you write about a woman or a man
there are lots of people who can tell you
all the ways you’re right and wrong
about the truth of that experience
or of being one religion or another
being one ethnicity or another
doing this job or being of that social class
they can all articulate the way
your perspective in the creation lacks

but no one can tell you
how a sasquatch or an alien
might eat a ripe banana
because one probably doesn’t exist
because the other is probably so far away
we’ll never have the technology to see
how an alien would actually do that

your preconceived notions about
how it feels to be a time-traveler
or a superhero or immortal
can only come from other works of fiction
just as true and not true as your own
so the whole field is wide open for play
you can put any of the meanings you want
into their identities and ways of being
you can explore anything from real life
through the lens
of their impossible otherness
no one can tell you that you’re
inauthentic
you are open to lay out entire vistas
of reconsidered meaning
through metaphor and simile

also you’re not required
to do any actual goddamned research
or make any form of factual notation
if you’re not inclined to
which is great for me
because I just want to make shit up