First published in Fireside Quarterly, January 2020

I was thinking today of a
world without traffic lights
where pushing the button
on the dashboard for recirculated air
would send the carbon dioxide
we breathe out from the cabin
into a special compartment full
of plants and the compartment would
be open to let in the sun but
shielded to protect it from wind and
the plants would photosynthesize
the carbon dioxide and release
oxygen that would be piped back
into the car, which, come to think of it,
would probably be solar powered
and in the world where
this car exists there would be
a skyscraper where all the people
live, high up in the clouds,
and everywhere else would be
parks.

© 2022 Annika Barranti Klein