on paper in the post-human world
Tuesday, 23 January 2024
| Sean Feeney
the broken english of a google search evades me
and i escape it in favour of printed glossy paper
unrefined and dull, seemingly beyond the favor of mathematics
no algorithm can claim my habit worth your time or subliminally insignificant
thus, i write with the quill of the precision of knowing my audience
and without the megaphone of reaching the full potential of an infinite crowd of onlookers
not as though the apt metaphor of monkeys at typewriters as algorithms — machinery imitating mind
might take interest in my language for they contain an adoration for anything resembling attractive noise
and that is the game i play displayed on paper
one scan away from remaining unchanged, or as so it appears to me
one transcription and submission away from falling into a sea
of words endlessly trailing on beneath a long sequence of 'o's
my lack of belief in an audience for small artists' gibberish feelings and expressions
rebuked by the eyes caught alight by the reflective quality of a magazine in the limelight
and that is the game i play displayed on paper
small though magnified by the spirit of articulate sportsmanship
small thought magnified by the spirit of articulate wordplay
infinitesimal in a bountiful sea of bustling livelihood
experiences defined by their play until done away with by mechanisms of finding the most immediately fulfilling play
the most immediate way to escape the day with no effort expended on being humane to ourselves and our love for meaningful creation
where the feelings of an audience become infinitesimal because the appeal of a shape is enough to entrance and entertain
and that is the game the algorithm plays
and that is the game that i escape
that's the game i play displayed on paper today
Sean Feeney is studying Year 12 Literature and VET Music at Bayside Christian College. He enjoys poetry analysis and interpolating uncommon time signatures into music composition.
Image credit: Jasmine Coates, a graduate of Bayside Christian College.
This poem was first published in The Overcoat, Issue 14 (Winter 2023), p.4. Republished with permission.