ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The glory of school years he could no longer find,

The wonder, the laughter; he wished he could rewind.

A time when he processed numbers using his mind,

A time when he was applauded for being one of a kind.

He sat beneath boughs and trees,

Where writing stories was all but a breeze.

He put pen to paper and using his mind,
Created magic, declared one of a kind.

Travelling with friends oh, what a pleasure,

Navigation, maps, co-ordinates and treasure.

He arrived at destinations using his mind,

He was dependable, he was one of a kind.

The turn of the century brought along the internet,

And now all he did, was fume and fret.

The endless buffering, ‘Oh, I think I'm losing my mind!’

‘Calm down, remember you are one of a kind.’

Running algorithms, he was paid to Excel,

By imprisoning himself with numbers in tiny cells.

He was a sum total of a man in the daily grind,

I wonder what happened, wasn't he one of a kind?

He had stories he wished he could tell,

But the boughs and tress…oh! how fast they fell,

He looked for pen and paper but only heard their death knell,

He mastered the impossible Word, albeit in editing hell!

Writing stories was no longer a breeze,

Creativity was hibernating in a cold deep freeze.

He drove on a blue line with no end in sight,

Till he heard a voice say, ‘Your destination is on the right’.

No navigation, no maps, no co-ordinates, no treasure,

His mindless days, were now of equal measure.

Entering an empty home he was ready to unwind,

He tossed his keys and poured out a bubbly pint.

‘Give me applause, Alexa,  if you don’t mind,

I wish to re-live the days when I was truly one of a kind.’
                                                                                            -Shalini