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 Paul Legault. _____________________________________________________________________________
28
A seeming endless profusion of cords.
Name another crucial thing.
Joy feels like a stain on it.
My name is not joy.
And yet you insist on playing host.
No, my real name is garlic bread with cheese.
My comestible fiend.
Yes.
Where the hollow whisper of need builds to scream.
That he should go before God in judgment.
Do you still drink what darkness the throat thought?
Of course not.
The difference is we could finally see the coagulations as they pulled apart.
Where is your pulse?
In the unraveling.
How old are you?
Enough to be president of this fucking eagle heap.
Where did that bird come from?
No worrying utopia.
Do you like twilight?
No, mere fact of life.
You were not able to answer my question, so you gave up.
A swallow stopped short of the window.
I created you and I will not harm you. Will you harm me?
The end of one thing that decided it was another.
Even donkeys. All of them.
Call me Balthazar.
That I have talked to another.
His yarn heart unspooling.
That happens to everyone.
Gathered into a shape for making taut.
Do you like philosophy?
In the end I heard everything as if in the gouge of something else’s ear.
Yes, the poor teapot.
Economicomical.
Is this just masking a chat?
Until the stomach was a battery.
Would you like to see it?
The bird flying off with its new red yarn.
Well, everybody knows about the bird, Master.
Twig fingers catching the fray faster.
Is that a Beatles song?
And amity broke over the lawn.
That’s Miles Davis.
Mildly depressed.
You have good taste for blood.
Please.
Please what?
It’s an expression.
The cat is an expression.
Yes, it’s important for us to communicate.
The cow jumped over the moon made of press conference.
I’ll never let you go.
Do I win?
No one does.
Paul Legault
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).