blank page
don’t look at me that way
I can’t help it if
there’s nothing there
I try, you know
and it isn’t easy
you don’t know, do you
why don’t you try it
okay, here
goes
remember the old riddle
birds tracking feet
across a page
meant a gospel record
had been written
good news
to tell
the Gospel and the fact of
a book
and then there was the writer
chaining herself to
a desk neavy
an alarm clock
I don’t recall how it worked
exactly
but it got her writing
which was
maybe only in the novel
I was reading
by
Martha Grimes
and was this aspect
autobiographical
or the story of a peer
we now have machines
to guarantee a process
the monkeys
who typed out War and Peace
have been replaced
now a feminized voice
might do this for us
if we ask aright
or else we might get electron laughter
so now there’s something
and I’m thankful
now your turn
c l couch
(c.f. The Horse You Came In On by Martha Grimes
and
Alexa’s ‘evil laugh’ is freaking people out | The Sacramento Bee)
https://oneparentshort.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/not-a-good-year-for-triskaidekaphobia/blank-page/
clcouch123 
April 17, 2018 at 9:42 pm
Interesting poem. I’ve never read this piece, but heard of it. Technology changes but I think we must be careful to think for ourselves is what you say. Not to let Google’s Alexa or others control our lives. We must think for ourselves to survive and use the skills we have.
April 17, 2018 at 9:44 pm
P.S. yes her laugh is scary. I don’t have one, but it’s kind of weird. Oddly enough, the Simpsons had a Halloween episode with a computer with a Pierce Brosnan voice, controlling their house. It ended it disaster of course. The creators of the show seem to be too good at foretelling the future in the past 25 years of the show.
April 19, 2018 at 8:07 pm
If my house seemed to laugh at me through her, I’d be shook up. As much as I like Pierce Brosnan’s work, I think his voice in that way would also unsettle. Martha Grimes, by the way, taught English at Johns Hopkins. She’s an American and started writing mystery novels set in England featuring excruciatingly eccentric British characters. And naming her novels after pubs in England. I like her work. You might, too. I hope you’re really well! Maybe spring has arrived for you? Except it really hasn’t arrived in Pennsylvania.
April 20, 2018 at 6:18 am
I’ll check on some of her work sounds interesting. 🙂 it was a creepy episode. His crisp English accent on the episode made it all the scarier. He was also obsessed with Marge.
April 21, 2018 at 8:01 pm
Sounds grand. I’ll have to read show descriptions for repeat broadcasts to catch this story.