Poems

Discrete Light

This poem anthropomorphizes a random appliance I unplugged.

Interesting little circuits
Configured like a brain, perhaps.
Little nascent impulses, like twitches
Begin your creature-breath in 5-volt lines
The nervous system of a small and simple existence
And the factory printers, “your warm mother”

When I pull the plug I watch your light go out slowly
But then a sputter, a dying breath, and a small pop
Like I watched your soul fly out from my hands,
Tethered by this umbilical, copper embrace

I can look at the moon right now and see deep
Smooth gradients painted into the sky
But your existence is discretized—tiny bits that form
Every little quanta, of thought



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