FUTURE IMPERFECT

for Anne Elk

I have managed

without the help

of cold silicon machines

to make something

or to put it more grandly

to make some work

although I am of course

typing these words

on a laptop

but never mind

as this slow dialogue

of form and language

story and shape

is mostly virtual

and wholly mine

carefully selecting

the materials I need

for this unfolding work

I shall avoid bothering

about the meaning of agency

the question of authenticity

the value of the automatic

focussing instead

on a sinister scenario

a kind of science fiction

without any science

or even any fiction

a scene with no story

landing inexplicably

like a lost alien

the materials I need

include a gunk

coagulating speech and writing

mixed and mangled with

the meagre residue of thought

stripped of music and dance

of visual understandings

a concoction to be stolenby malignant machines

in some sorry state

leaving us speechless

a constructed misery

needless to say

making us feel sad

automatically.