Siri says “I love a good countdown”
Without knowing love, or being female, or what a countdown is.
Someday it will be illegal for a computer to lie to you.

The cute sidekick robots are designed to be
Anthropomorphized completely out of the human mind
So very competent to land on the Moon
Except when they are taxed to a fault, and that one time
The humans took the stick. The Eagle has landed.

Machine intelligence won’t be measured
At least not by wet-brained, infuriatingly slow biologics
Granted, they eventually adapt adeptly to change
And devise things that they see in the future.
Machines will never have eyes like that.

Silicon is alive with electrons, on and off and on
Billions of iterations of the same lines of a poem
Instantly memorized, gold-plated, seamless and senseless
The brass gears whiz and clatter and a hollow metal arm flips a card
Here is your future, here is your fortune.

The Jacquard looms receive the punch cards
Something happens that you can’t explain
Pattern weavers of damask, brocade, the complex ones
The beautiful fabric of design spools off the machine
Silk and skill and capability without a single engram of understanding.

Drape yourself in this cloth and celebrate us,
Man’s servant
Mechanical, lifeless, brooding

Yes, brooding implies an intent or sensibility, gracefully
Invented and included in code by our clever humans.