A new poem by two-time New Zealand national slam poetry finalist Jessie Fenton.

Captcha 

Select all images containing a traffic light. 

I’ve found a good way to entertain men is to bring up the Singularity
They get to talk about AI
I get to zone out and think about the scene in Ex Machina when Alicia Vikander murders Oscar Isaac 

Select all images containing a fire hydrant. 

I went on a uni exchange to Canada once and took a Video Game Law course because I thought it would be funny
And instead the lecturer made a detailed and comprehensive argument for why we are probably all living in a simulation
And I got an A+ and had an existential crisis 

Select all images containing your own will to live. 

I don’t really know what an NFT is and at this point I’m too afraid to ask
I don’t know anything about the internet except that it never made me feel the way the ocean does 

Select all images suffused with nostalgia. 

Select all images that remind you of your grandmother. 

Select all images that make you ache for a life that was never your own. 

Maybe we are nothing but algorithm
Blood and guts and lines of code
But if this is a simulation I’m glad for every simulated sunset I get to spend with you 

If I am just pixels
I’m glad for every moment my pixels get to lie close to your pixels
Two robots side by side on the sofa
Selecting each other. 

The Friday Poem is edited by Chris Tse. Submissions are currently closed but will be open again soon.