Do Androids Dream of Nuclear Family?
How far to that off-world
anyway, Mr. Nexus 6?
Too cloudy tonight to see even
the moon or a single star
from where I am, alone
at the kitchen table in that honest
American way of pondering
kitchen sink problems
as the refrigerator shudders
to rest, opening a gap
of silence for the dishwasher’s
low slosh to enter.
Two years ‘til 2019, once far-
in-the-future Blade Runner,
but around here, it’s still
Portrait of a Man in the Garden
of 20th Century Machines.
And I’m not adding up
to even a Polaroid
anybody would want to look at,
other than an android
hungering for memories.
So slide my image out
of the rubber- banded wad
of photos you’re going to steal from
some human’s sock drawer.
Say, This was my father.
After the great snowstorm,
he took me sledding.
It’s okay to just want to be
left alone at a table to wonder when
your family will return.
Call the man in the picture.
Ask him about that blizzard year
because you were so young.
I’ll recall for you how cold you were.
anyway, Mr. Nexus 6?
Too cloudy tonight to see even
the moon or a single star
from where I am, alone
at the kitchen table in that honest
American way of pondering
kitchen sink problems
as the refrigerator shudders
to rest, opening a gap
of silence for the dishwasher’s
low slosh to enter.
Two years ‘til 2019, once far-
in-the-future Blade Runner,
but around here, it’s still
Portrait of a Man in the Garden
of 20th Century Machines.
And I’m not adding up
to even a Polaroid
anybody would want to look at,
other than an android
hungering for memories.
So slide my image out
of the rubber- banded wad
of photos you’re going to steal from
some human’s sock drawer.
Say, This was my father.
After the great snowstorm,
he took me sledding.
It’s okay to just want to be
left alone at a table to wonder when
your family will return.
Call the man in the picture.
Ask him about that blizzard year
because you were so young.
I’ll recall for you how cold you were.
Jason Gebhardt’s poems have appeared in the The Southern Review, Poet Lore, Iron Horse Literary Review, and The William and Mary Review. His chapbook was a semifinalist in the 2016 Frost Place Competition and won the 2016 Cathy Smith Bowers Prize. He has studied with Sandra Beasley and Stanley Plumly.