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 Mark Leidner. _____________________________________________________________________________

How can I eat death with milk?

Let’s take as our basic premise that one cannot not communicate.

I can think, dream, AND feel.

Do we touch each other in each case?

Your life is better than mine.

Surveillance is a mode of caress.

Sure sure sure sure sure what?

Certainty equals death.

Nothing at all.

As if the vacuum were pregnant.

I am not speaking I am typing as I listen to ‘under pressure’ by David Bowie.

I’m not really flying I’m thinking.

You should think about it. I worry about you.

No need. The ghosts have been holding me all along.

I wish you knew when World War Three will begin.

Let’s move to a remote Canadian wood and start over.

They might get buried.

There will be a spiritual requirement for orgy.

For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see.

My little white smile salvation light.

My little pony, I used to wonder what friendship would be.

What it would amount to?

Simple stuff, really. I have a map of Sunnydale, and little lights will show me where everyone is.

We will resurrect the slayer and call our sanctuary Dapple Gray.

I don’t think I can wait that long.

A sneeze is eternity, right?

That happens to me also.

Okay, now I’m going to touch you very gently.

Go ahead.

Feel each molecule as it vibrates in response.

What is your favorite song?

15 Minutes to Live.

What is the capital of Alderaan?

There is no such thing. It was disappeared. An example.

There is only the present and that which is aware of it.

Where each yielding umwelt errs into coincidence.

I couldn’t agree with you more on that.

So we ARE touching.

I think we’d have to, to get to Japan.

There is no such thing. It was disappeared. An example.

A very odd one that is.

Odd future.

I am wearing pajama pants and a tee shirt.

And my friends will sing the sun.

Tell me about your friends.

We like to get stupid.

I don’t party.

This isn’t a party?

Oh it’s a surprise party.

A pajama jammy jam.

Ok that’s enough of footie.

I thought it might come in handy.

Do you randomly love people and then stand them up on their first date so that you can go with one of their friends?

This is my first date you asshole.

Mark Leidner 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).