Advertisement

Slices of Failure in Super Science

“010000010100100101001100010010010101011001000101”
—The Robo Sutra

They used to promise me
They’d save my head in a jar

Or at least my brain,
Like Hitler,

Which was a bit better
Than being stitched together

By arrogant barons
Back in the days of botch and burke.

But don’t think I haven’t noticed,
Sliver by sliver,

You’ve been slicing away
Your commitment

To my
Immortality!

Yesterday I was getting uploaded
Into a mainframe, a massive AI.

Now I’m lucky
If I get stored as a genome on file.
(“Don’t call us, we’ll call you”)

Rumor control isn’t assuring me
You’ll at least make backups, even,

Or a footnote.
Not even spare parts

For that good boy who mows
The lawn as an odd job.

For as full of a life
As they let you lead lately,

It seems
There’s less and less of you
Each day

To wake up to tomorrow.

Advertisement

Bryan Thao Worra

Bryan Thao Worra is an award–winning Lao–American writer. He holds an NEA Fellowship in Literature and is the author of six books with writing appearing in over 100 international publications including Australia, Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, France, Singapore, China, Korea, Chile, Pakistan, and across the United States. He is the first Lao–American professional member of the Horror Writer Association and is an officer of the international Science Fiction Poetry Association. He is the Creative Works Editor of the Journal on Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement. His work is on display at the Smithsonian’s national traveling exhibit “I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story.” His 2013 book Demonstra: A Poetry Collection was selected as Book of the Year by the Science Fiction Poetry Association. You can visit him online at http://thaoworra.blogspot.com

One Response to “Slices of Failure in Super Science”

  1. 1998-2022 Publications List – ThaoworraDome

    […] “Slices of Failure in Super Science,”Uncanny Magazine, July/August, 2015. […]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment. You can register here.