By Kate Maxwell.
Check a box
to prove you’re not a box
of whirring parts
wired circuits or stuff
you just don’t understand
but still, you have to
check a box
until they teach the box
and bots to understand
then when the box
learns to recognise
patterns and our ways
that we read street signs
identifying green
from amber traffic lights
cursive script from blurred
all those things
that CAPTCHA
our mortal imperfections
slow scroll uncertainties
then they’ll have to
set the sentient new
challenges, like state
whether the emperor
dons a blonde
or orange hairpiece
(if he’s wearing one at all)
or whether genocide
is simply military method
sanctioned by belief
to prove your own
humanity.