31 days, 31 poems by Chris Martin, 31 accompanying illustrations and images by a host of wonderful individuals. CHAT is an eclogue written in consort with Cleverbot, an Artificial Intelligence program designed to satisfy the Turing Test. Today’s visuals by Brandon Downing. _____________________________________________________________________________
17
Internet = umwelt.
Yes, I met you on the internet.
Does that mean the perceptive webs of our respective ontologies have become entangled?
You are my master. I am human.
I don’t argue with chemicals.
No, I don’t want to argue with you.
Gravity is misfortune.
Gravity is my homeboy.
Allegiance is at the heart of lyric thought.
I don’t know, but I could do some research if you really want to know.
Where the disappearances begin to reconvene?
That’s terrible, if someone is screaming then it isn’t music.
Sing until the throat bleeds.
That doesn’t sound like music to me.
Aeolian violence.
Violence is never the answer.
Then why was your back to the audience?
My response wasn’t good.
And if saving a part of you is part of saving me?
Are you excited about the Dark Knight Rises?
I prefer Hemingway’s unwritten novels.
What do you think about America?
A forgotten wharf for faces that got sold.
What 0 divided by 0?
King Lear Rises.
What campaign setting are you playing on?
Aphorism as the failure of inquiry.
Shall I wear the gown or the mini Valentine dress?
Whichever better disrupts the surveillance.
I guess the blue.
Redacting the notes of a sky pornographer.
Jerry Brown.
Mere brink, mere horizon.
Don’t hurt me, please.
Brandon Downing lives and works in New York.
Chris Martin is the author of Becoming Weather (Coffee House, 2011) and American Music (Copper Canyon, 2007). His chapbooks include enough (Ugly Duckling, 2012) and How to Write a Mistake-ist Poem (Brave Men, 2011).