The Flight of the Figs II

Once upon a time

I was a fig

(Yes, a fig)

full of little flowers inside,

plenty of endless dreams…

I was born

in a casual tree

of those that nobody grooms,

of those that never get rain,

of those that drain you to death.

Shrivelled,

punished by birds

who picked on my white sweaty sweetness

and left me scarred,

but made me stronger.

One day,

an arrogant orange,

of a garden nearby,

called for a meeting of peers

and suggested the idea

of forming a fruital system.

(Yes, a fruital system)

The rest of fruits agreed.

So, the orange stood in the centre,

cause she was too tangy to spin.

Everyone else

came forward

in a perfect queue

that started to curl

coiling outwards

around the self-proclaimed star.

The apple, the peach, the pear,

the lemon and even the grape

found quickly a place

in a galaxy they called

“The Juicy Way”.

They all looked so lush,

immaculate,

divine,

waitrosy,

as they floated

in their glorious ether

of mechanically smooth subjects.

I want a place in this system,

I said.

I want to be an aster too.

I deserve to be there,

rotating

in harmony

with you.

The apple and some others

started to giggle

with patronising

swivel-eyed disdain.

So, after this rational rejection,

I had no choice

but to become

a zero-hours planet,

also known as a comet.

(Yes, a comet)

So now,

I am a wrinkly wild comet

full of odd rugged cracks.

I am not round,

not even pear shaped,

I have no clouds,

no satellites,

no green bits,

no rings of dust,

no frozen lakes of gas…

but I couldn’t care less!

I am a prince of the universe,

planets fear my freedom,

no one knows my trajectory,

it is hard to land on my surface,

I come and go as I please.

I wander

through the cosmos,

invisible,

but for those who dare to see.

My path,

carved in stardust,

enigma

wrapped in velocity,

nursing

the real order of heavens.

Cherries and plums whisper

in secret groves,

mapping lines of exclusion,

but my course defies their plotting,

igniting supernovas

erasing and burning

their schemes.

 

I fly past the strawberries,

who’ve made peace with their roots,

yet I, the comet,

I, the fig,

refuse to be anchored,

carrying with me

stories of distant orchards,

of worlds to be made

of depths to be dreamed.

In my tail, a spray of seeds,

scattering joy across the void,

each one

a promise of life,

of new beginnings,

of different timelines

converging through love.

I rave

with solar winds,

embracing the chaos,

symphonies of spheres,

where harmony is born

from light,

where gravity

is the syntax

that binds us all.

So let the fruital system rotate,

and rotate,

and rotate

in its orderly perfection.

Let the apple, the peach, the pear,

the lemon, and even the grape

play their moves

so perfectly,

for I am the wild pulse

of this atomic simulation,

a song not to be tamed,

the ever-expanding cosmos,

the heart of many black holes,

cultivating

new stars

timelessly,

timelessly,

timelessly.

Second half of this poem, from “I wander”, written in conjunction with ChatGPT 4o.

Vegetarian Answers to the Mysteries of the Universe

The universe / bright bodies roam / with unique numerical souls / in dark fields / with no fence / on plasma screens / with frames beyond

Breathing gravity in (Please Inhale) / Breathing energy out (Please Exhale) / (Again!) / Breathing gravity in (Please Inhale) / Breathing energy out (Please Exhale)

Breathing in / all our passion / and candor / Breathing out / so much trouble / Sometimes coughing in despair    

Curiosity / stimulated / in a clueless / intelligent journey / (perusing the pages of cosmos) in the skies / dodging antimatter / scrambling / through mystery

A simulation to forget / the exclusive sorrow / of being so grand / of being so lone

A simulation to perform / the singular privilege / of inhabiting / the basement

of an inverted pyramid/ of ecosystems / in constant state of rebellion

And the Answers? / Where are the Answers? / I leave those / as homework / for you, / Dear Students, / for our next seminar,

I leave those / with another human, / who will write / the holy coding / for a Language Model / of Artificial Ethics, / of Artificial Beauty, / of Artificial Love.

I leave, / at the end, / the Answers to your Questions / with the skilled hunters, / the networking predators, / of the highest honors / of the finest prizes, / the carnivore minds / of metaphors for sale.

Poem written in the morning of the 30th of December 2022. Images generated from text extracts of the poem by Artificial Intelligence https://dream.ai/ by Wombo