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"Would You Make Love to a Robot?"

[internet questionnaire]

If the eyes were right—
not exact, flawless,
but true enough in their fictions—
if they probed,
responded to emotions;

if hands collected tenderness in a jar;

if the A.I. learned to laugh at my jokes,
sounding less mechanical
than a spouse of many loving years;

if, when its shell nuzzled against my chest,
its hair felt like wind with a kiss of rain;

if I, too, could be less spark-&-circuit,
cursing-my-misfortune,
I-want-to-be-alone—

I might curl in a ball beside it in bed,
waiting for it to notice I am there.

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Ace Boggess is author of two books of poetry: The Prisoners (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2014) and The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (Highwire Press, 2003). His poems have appeared in Harvard Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Rattle, River Styx, Atlanta Review, and many other journals. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia.