Steve Denehan
AI
The nonsense comes on at 2 a.m.
when I am just about to hit the sack
I always have a quick run-through
shopping channels flogging extendable hoses
electric bicycles and ab rollers
music channels with no music
documentaries on serial killers
competitive cooking programmes
and last night
a scientist
talking about the present
and the future
of artificial intelligence
it is a curious term
artificial intelligence
as if there is any other kind
as if our intelligence
the little we possess
was not created
is not artificial
we are creators now
edging closer
to creating our own sentient things
using intelligence received
from cosmic anomalies
received in turn
from someone, something
and so, now
we are gods
last week I read a story about a little girl
a toddler really
who had been tortured
from day one
in all of the ways
by her mother and her father
until her body gave out
the parents stood before a judge
offered no reason
no remorse
we don’t just cause the wounds
we prod them
spit in them, after
we are gods
we are gods