Today's poem is by Lisa Allen Ortiz

I am Not a Robot
       

What language do
machines speak?
Yes. No. I woke to
a progress bar—
some lapse or absence.
Who made the world?
We did, you said, and
I worked the problem of it
with my hands.
Inside the puzzle
of it, a captcha code
the prophets left, a wheel
rimmed with eyes.
Crosswalks, stoplights.
I checked everything
I knew. The human part
dragged itself.
Something clicked.
Baby, I like the way
you look at me.
What a time on earth—
sunlight, shadow
and both of us inside
this one
encrypted afternoon.

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Copyright © 2023 Lisa Allen Ortiz All rights reserved
from Bennington Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission