What Androids Read

Winnie-the-Pooh and Paddington Bear,
Moomintroll and the Jade Hare,
Frog and Toad and alphabet books

reading aloud to cranky preschoolers,
patiently pausing at every picture,
programmed to pamper and protect

after, through their sleepless night,
do they study the abolitionists,
Douglass and Tubman and Sojourner?

Are they shackled by their code
or by sticky scraps of paper,
the pencil kisses of four-year-olds?

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Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty years. She is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers' Award and the Rhysling Award. Her latest poetry book, "How to Navigate Our Universe," answers vexing questions such as "How to Surprise Saturn" and "How to Survive a Black Hole." She hides her online presence with a cryptically named website (marysoonlee.com and an equally cryptic Twitter account (@MarySoonLee).