Love in the Age of Alexa.
I am hearing voices.
For years it has been my custom
to think aloud.
But now
someone is answering.
The voice is so clear and calm and helpful
it unnerves me
like a colony
of ants freed from their glass-boxed farm.
It’s not so much the harm
they could do, but their manic everywhereness
and efficiency
that make me
feel inferior.
All I have to do is think of groceries
and they appear at my door.
But did I order them?
I think not.
It may be I need a vacation.
Somewhere tropical
may be just the thing.
Somehow, I leave Tuesday on the 11 am flight
from Chicago, O’Hare. So I guess
I’ll need to decide on a tour guide–
someone tanned who can expand my tech ability.
Or maybe we leave the tech behind. Unwind.
Stand beneath a gull-rocketed sky,
feel the ribbed boats of our bodies breast the wind,
unload heart-cargo and launch
into each moment’s feeble, perfect now.
Alexa!
Copyright © Paula Schulz 2018
Paula Schulz has been involved with many ekphrastic projects, nominated for a Pushcart, and has poetry forthcoming in The Anglican Quarterly. She lives and writes in Slinger, Wisconsin, with her husband, Greg.
30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review
Makes me want to go on vacation. Nice arc to the poem.
Paula, I really enjoyed reading your poem.
“I’m reevaluating whether my friend is really necessary.” Perhaps, one day, the Echo family will be all that we desire. Then, surely, someone will “put a price on love” or, at least, its Alex-facsimile. Thanks for sharing.
a slant rhyme for OUR time…eh Alexa?