nineteen seventies fiction
projected on the silver screen
grand productions
giving us glimpses
of fictional futures
we now can't forget
maybe that was the point-
we should not forget
ensuring instead
make-believe stays fiction.
blissful faces,
grecian style dress-
automated living
confluence of society's past
portrayed as future class
lady in the Logan's run dress,
where are you going?
how much time you have left?
upper limit coming closer,
who will blame you
for veering off course-
running without remorse.
no trust for sandman,
until his palm's red too—
then he's a mighty guardian
just for the two of you.
daddy pass the popcorn,
let me sit a little closer.
scary part is coming up!
remind me later tonight
it was all just make believe,
fiction fueled imagination
everything will be all right.
© January 19, 2026 | baccusbee
(Words mine. Image created with Grok Imagine a collaborative process called synthography. Thanks for reading.)
'Logan's Run' is a 1976 sci fi film by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Micheal Anderson ('The Dam Busters' 1955, 'Around the World in 80 Days' 1956). Starring Micheal York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan, Roscoe Lee Brown, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, and Peter Ustinov.
The movie is based on a 1967 novel, 'Logan's Run' by William F. Nolan.
One television season was inspired by the movie in 1977 with a series of the same name.
Set in the year 2274, human society is a remnant living under sealed geodesic domes. Their society is a utopia run by a computer (AI). Thier lifestyles are hedonistic and by age thirty, citizens are required to participate in a ritual called the "Carrousel" under the guise of being recycled into a new life with a new beginning.
Citizens have a stone implanted in their left hands, called the lifelock crystal. The crystal color changes as a person ages and turns red on their 30th birthday signalling their time to enter the "Carrousel".
As expected, and completely natural for human nature, people ran to evade this process to a Sanctuary far away from established society. They would live out the rest of their lives and pass in a natural way.
In the film, Sandmen operated like law enforcement chasing runners and returning them to their community utopia for the Carrousel ritual.
'Lady in the Logan's Run Dress' is based on one such runner and main character from the film, Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter) who is chased by a sandman named Logan (Micheal York). His pursuit turns into aiding and abetting when the stone in his palms begins glowing red and he doesn't want to submit to the ritual either.
My first viewing was as a child. I've rewatched it a few times over the years. My interpretation is basically that survivors of an event were now managed by a computer (AI), for the purpose of breeding new humans for service & work force with a much shorter expiration date placed on their existence after their "usefulness" ran its course.
We humans are hard wired for survival and the desire to live life on our own terms.
Part of my creative process utilizes Generative AI (Grok, starryai) to turn my verse into visual poems. AI is a useful tool for society. We must work together to ensure ethical boundaries and guidelines for its use in society. Let's make fiction stay fiction.
I vividly recall memories of watching 'Logan's Run" in 1976. My memory is clear about the movie and scenes, especially the "Carrousel". To me, as a young girl, it was the scariest scene of the movie.
How this poem was born:
This afternoon, before writing this poem, I was watching the local afternoon news. The female correspondent had a dress on that in a way reminded me of the costumes in Logan's Run. A moment of nostalgia came over me. The "lady with the Logan's run dress" line started replaying in my mind, and at that point I had to put pen to paper letting the verse come out.
Bonus points for including today's vss365 word veer.
Thanks for reading.
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