Recycling Blade Runner

Blade Runner, the one

without voice over,

is on repeat tonight.

My discovery comes

from pressing the guide

button (marked red)

and navigating across

fields of menu options

that spreadsheet over

the television screen.

The television we have,

an old Philips, still offers

the digital intelligence

to vote with the other drones

watching Sci-fi channel

from one AM until six,

testing our Turings

to make sure we are

still living. What fun

would it be if we had all

just been EATen

like the machine does

in Barth’s novel. More human,

still, than human.

Like the Greek gods,

we must seem like petty

creators to our art/ificial life

© Paul Piatkowski

Bio:

Paul Piatkowski lives in Winston Salem, North Carolina with his beautiful wife and precocious corgi. His writing has been published in journals like Fast Forward, Sheepshead Review, 2River View, Nagautuck River Review, A Hudson View, Lines + Stars, Tonopah Review, and Liebamour.