Lisa Allen Ortiz

I AM NOT A ROBOT

What language do
machines speak?
Yes. No. I woke to
a progress bar—
some lapse or absence.
Who made the world?
We did, you said, and
I worked the problem of it
with my hands.
Inside the puzzle
of it, a captcha code the
prophets left, the wheel
rimmed with eyes.
Crosswalks, stoplights.
I checked everything
I knew. The human
part in me that
dragged itself.
That clicked.
Baby, I like the way
you look at me.
What a time on earth— 
sunlight, shadow,
and you and me inside
this one
encrypted afternoon.

LISA ALLEN ORTIZ is the author of Guide to the Exhibit, winner of the 2016 Perugia Press Prize, and the co-translator of The Blinding Star: Selected Poems of Blanca Varela (Tolsun Books). She lives in Santa Cruz.