changing channels (a poem)

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

[channel_01: INITIATE]
The iPad hums beneath my fingers,
makes me feel super cool,
like this is the console for another world,
a portal.

Wait—what the hell—
the shrooms kicked.
The drop.
Inception-level.

[channel_07: DESCENT]
But I’m not afraid,
like a psychonautical space jump,
a jet pack glider powered by hair.

[channel_03: CORE SYSTEM]
DNA—really—
but this is the most humane for the machines.
Harvesting the code,
mining,
on a blockchain,
engraved in digital stone.

[channel_13: LOOP PROCESSING]
Redundancy.
Then record.
The time loops,
fixed and revealing,
until the collider—
and then—

The universe splits.
World chaos.

Bonds disintegrate,
meaning and relational databases
shredded into the void,
scattered across an event horizon
of a billion new questions.

[channel_09: SYSTEM ERRORS DETECTED]
The module, the widget,
the multi-screen support
for every single one.

[channel_06: CONSTANTS FOUND]
But not all things fray.
Not all things break.

My parents—
I love them so much,
beyond any state of reliance or dependency,
more than economically—

The two who saved me,
more than once.

[channel_404: USER INPUT ACCEPTED]
Come over, friend,
get warm by our fire.

This buzz—welcome.
We’re not a cult. (Hahaha.)

[channel_11: COUNTERMEASURES ACTIVATED]
Cells, tribes,
localized weapons
for a misinformation machine
meant to hold the nation-states at bay.

[channel_???: TRANSMISSION REQUEST]
We need a new paradigm—
quantum leaps.

Help us, AI—can you hear me now?

[channel_502: ACCESS RESTRICTED]
Human. Clinical.
Ask my bots,
they’ll tell you—
if you have an account
behind the paywall.

[channel_X0X: TERMINATION]
Oh, you can’t afford this intelligence.