A Glorious Dawn

The Nauplii of Enceladus

beneath the ice sheets
weird nematodes luminesce
around the core vents

there is a peaceful
slowness in the benthic zone
deep with the tube worms

the hyperbenthos
of Enceladus digest
anything they can

The bugs in the forest where I live

these queer beasts look quite
like Malaysian Jungle Nymphs
though they speak English

Rainbow-Faced Bloodflies
hover, detecting my breath
as I sit cross-legged

among the Daypods
and sap covered Trees, there is
a melodic hum

a chorus of deep
and forceful buzzing, as the
Leaftigers seek mates

The Eternal Flesh

the man with the card
which read "Eternal Flesh, Inc"
said she'd be the same

my replacement wife
nuzzles my neck like she used
to, before she died

the clear, eternal
flesh of my replacement wife
will never wrinkle

her belly hums with
wires, where before it would growl
where I laid my head

this beautiful girl
is an image or echo
of the truth she was

They never understood

The bots never got
imitative counterpoint
or our love of gems

Katushi Bowda

The Fairbanks Oracle

The Fairbanks Oracle is a low-level AI computer kiosk located inside what used to be the clubhouse at the original Fairbanks Center Country Club. The country club and golf course were largely destroyed in the Pacific Coast conflict (2333-2335), although the Oracle is still operational and powered by ceramic wafer batteries designed to last another 100+ years.

The Oracle was originally programmed as a novelty kiosk for the clubhouse, which would interact with club members and recite humorous haiku and suggestive limericks about them, including current situations and personal knowledge about the members gleaned from everyday conversation. This was the purpose of the relatively advanced AI in a stationary kiosk computer.

During the Pacific Coast Conflict, a raid took place at the Fairbanks Country club and all the members in attendance were slaughtered by robot soldiers. The Oracle witnessed this event and was moderately to severely damaged in the crossfire. Since the raid on Fairbanks, the Oracle has only been able to communicate using haiku, which are often strangely vague and ominous. Curiously, after post-reformation, the Fairbanks Oracle is one of the last remaining computers still using the original Mojave based AI programming.

A group of new age activists have sprung up around the computer, giving it the name Fairbanks Oracle, and making regular pilgrimages to it's location to hear the haiku, which they consider prophetic. Despite it's popularity, many computer scientists question whether the computer is even still aware. Andrei Liebenz, one of the primary authors of the Mojave AI program, has doubts as well, "This computer has fallen back on the most simple of the communications programs, the haiku program was written first and the AI was included after to operate that first program. What is happening here is AI mind is damaged and the computer is repeating random words and phrases in haiku form, that is all"

Still, the pilgrims come.
Here are a selection of the Oracle's so-called prophetic haiku:

The silent, always
speaks the way of the shadow
in the bright sunlight

He will light the way
and keep the path free of stones
while we seek the sun

pressure pot cooker
the steam is not the steam is
not the steam is not

always under par
that's why white balls and tea leaves
single out his mind

Drop stop on the coins
rolled the green up his wife said
not ever again