I was in kindergarten:
I would race home after school
Trying to beat my sisters
I was not speed racer cool
I just wanted the TV first
But they’d form the head
And cut me off from my show:
It was Astro Boy
I did not understand it,
But Tobio was so nice
Perhaps if my sisters hadn’t
Jonesed the old black & white
To watch “The Guiding Light”
I’d be a weeb today

Hand painting on the wall

Sculpture of a lion man

Engraved deer bones

The debate seems old,

Maybe older than us

Were our cousins first?

Did they start art?

Is it uniquely human?

Did our ancestors see it

And decided like A.I.

To steal it from others

The game is guessing
First person Waldo
Street signs give away
Where he’s at
Some pictures point
Like DiCaprio’s meme
Others have me
Doing math in my head
Some street in the midwest
Got me stumped
Thinking this land is dead
This town’s white bones
All look the same to me

Trapped in the twilight
Day turning into night
Colors chucked into the grinder
The tasty morsels you find there.
A twist on the trope.
Find the hidden rope,
Holding things together.
You look but don’t ever.
Feeling of frenzied imprisonment
Once begun, the end’s imminent.
First glance is the tip of the floe
This is important for the show.
Old predicting the fall of the young
Starts the new song sung.
The link between life and memory:
I’ll finally die when they’ve forgotten me.
My place assured
Death has the last word

The size of this is enormous
When seen on the canvas
Though it is hard to appreciate
The magnitude of the problem

Seen here on my phone
It does not seem a threat
It looks like ordinary people
Hanging out and living

I am paralyzed by information
There is so much to download
I want to shout in the street
And camp on the old man’s lawn

Instead I keep my eyes down
The small screen is easier to manage

It started with a selfie
First in white and black
Silly faces and silly clothes
And then she’d strike a pose
A towel draped upon her
Then she turned color
Portraits fit for crowns
Portraits fit for clowns
For Richer & Poorer
And now we mix it up
May A.I. never copy
Time for my close up

Where did it all go wrong?
When I took this job?
            I got married so young?
            I went to college?
            I got bad grades in high school?
            I dated that girl?
            I moved to another town?
            I was born?
            my parents met?
            my ancestors moved to this country?
            this country was founded?
            that empire took over?
            we started farming?
            we started thinking?
            it stepped out of the water?
            the planet was created?
            the universe began?

And then there was light