We will replace ourselves first –
garments woven by needle-fingered pulleys,
mechanisms to fix, rethread, cut, pack,
ship out – to nowhere, to no one –
and we will replace others, too,
forge small and curious snails,
metal and silicon,
to scout the sea-floor, to visit far-flung worlds,
and beasts of wire, birds of foam,
they will dance in mimicry of nature,
mimicry and mockery –
how long will it take
for newborns to forget they should have
fathers, mothers,
how long will it take
for an economy to regrow its wings
and ascend to heaven?
Automation
