by Louise Ho

ROBOTANY

for Beth, Charlie and David

The banana is a berry
The strawberry none
When ontology regulates by a word
Language becomes function
Of all that is or isn't
Thus within the pale of morals
Wouldn't you say all life is but a pun

Whatever you may wish to call him:
Asperger's, aphasic, autistic,
Just plain eccentric,
Or self concentric ______
You've still got to give him
His human due.
Whether he would, could
Return the courtesy
Is a different matter.
As if contained
In his phantom placenta
He peers out
Through a slit that opens occasionally
And sees the world
As others see it.
Untempered by empathy
He does not know
The shared languages of common emotions.
He becomes a force of nature,
And, like time & tide,
He waits for no one.
Singular, integer, intransigent, solipsist ______
Here's the perfect man
In a perfect one-man world.