JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

it was end game

between man and computer

 

battlefield strewn with corpses

failed strategies, beheadings

behind them hop skip

and pounce, thrust

and foil of cannon fodder

 

he had been bred for this task

genes selected from

sperm banks of grand masters

with intergalactic sounding names

 

the robot was a forest of entangled

wires, laser pod eye stalks

chromium bracketed finger joints

quadrillion terabyte memory

 

they were down to two kings

two pawns a bishop and a knight

stalemates carefully avoided

they both wanted clear cut victory

 

it was time for psychological warfare

the robot grew a million bloodshot eyes

spread vanadium vaned wings

over sixty four light years, it was

stretched to its thin hinged limits

 

the chess genius grimaced

a gnat had just flown into his nostril

and was tickling him uncontrollably

the grandmaster sneezed - the hugest

sneeze in history, the robot stretched

to its limits exploded, flew apart

 

in billions of flying particles

gases, quanta, electrons, building block

nuts and bolts spreading through

the space of time

 

future students would scoff in disbelief

but some called it the big bang theory