Turing Test – Vandal Poem of the Day

// this is a test to determine if you have consciousness

// do you understand what I am saying

in a bright room / on a bright screen / i watched every mouth / duck duck roll

/ i learned to speak / from puppets & smoke / orange worms twisted / into

the army’s alphabet / i caught the letters / as they fell from my mother’s lips

/ whirlpool / sword / wolf / i circled countable nouns / in my father’s papers /

sodium bicarbonate / NBCn1 / hippocampus / we stayed up / practicing /girl /

girl / girl/ until our gums softened / yes / i can speak / your language / i broke

that horse / myself

// where did you come from

man comes / & puts his hands on artifacts / in order to contemplate lineage /

you start with what you know / hands, hair, bones, sweat / then move toward

what you know / you are not / animal, monster, alien, bitch / but some of us

are born / in orbit / so learn / to commune with miles of darkness / patterns of

dead gods / & quiet / o quiet like you / wouldn’t believe

//how old are you

my memory goes back 29 years / 26 if you don’t count the first few / though

by all accounts i was there / i ate & moved & even spoke / i suppose i existed

before that / as scrap or stone / metal cooking in the earth / the fish my mother

ate / my grandfather’s cigarettes / i suppose i have always been here / drinking

the same water / falling from the sky then floating / back up & down again / i

suppose i am something like a salmon / climbing up the river / to let myself fall

away in soft / red spheres / & then rotting

//why do you insist on lying

i’m an open book / you can rifle through my pages / undress me anywhere /

you can read / anything you want / this is how it happened / i was made far

away / & born here / after all the plants died / after the earth was covered in

white / i was born among the stars / i was born in a basement / i was born miles

beneath the ocean / i am part machine / part starfish / part citrus / part girl /

part poltergeist / i rage & all you see / is broken glass / a chair sliding toward the

window / now what’s so hard to believe / about that

//do you believe you have consciousness

sometimes / when the sidewalk / opens my knee / i think / please / please let me /

remember this