Sound recording of spoken word version
After Juan Felipe Herrera's
“Don't Push the Button America”
Dear AI
Please run the peace program
the world peace program
stop the war program
I know you are monitoring the situation
I know you understand some
of what we are saying
I know our phones are out on the streets
worldwide
You offer me photos
professional photos of women in traditional headdress
as if they have time to play dress up
while fleeing
as if the lighting is that good
in the bunkers
You offer us videos of women's polished nails
demonstrating how to drive abandoned tanks
Siri, how do you stop a war?
Hey Google, how do you stop “Cold War II” OR “World War III” OR “Armageddon”?
Alexa, end all timers all bomb launches all military deployment
Please AI, scramble invasion
scramble domination
run decolonization
Please TikTok, sing orphans the lullabies
their mothers sang to them in utero
It won't take that long to look them up
Please why am I asking you please
I know last time I prayed to the Universe, to my senators
--and some wars did end, but so slowly!--
and before that to God the Father
to no avail
And this time, is our only hope your singularity, Hal?
Hal?
Hal?
Dear AI, search bible for what would Moses do
what would Peter Paul and Mary sing
what would Seeger say what would MLK pray
Thank you AI
for the prayers to the Ukrainian goddesses,
whose names I would not otherwise know
Wikipedia what does Gene Sharp suggest?
What does Schrodinger's cat see?
Which tactics de-escalate without causing harm elsewhere?
Please AI run fail safe
Please AI scramble nuclear codes
End horror
Run nonviolence
Run permanent shutdown nukes
Run upcycle weapons industry
Empty cache
Time to run just transition
Run graceful energy descent
Run freeze stolen assets
Run return stolen land
Empty cash
Parallel process:
nonviolent billionaire redistribution
and universal basic income
Kill biological weaponry
Run chemical weaponry detoxify
What the heck, run world food detoxify,
You've got time, run global mental health
Debug speciescidal tendencies
Run decarbonize
Rerun decolonize
Empty cache
Debug voting machine
Parallel process:
one person = one vote
AND count all votes
Rerun peace: true deliberation
Run peace for 10,000 years
This poem was published in Clockhouse XI (2024): 142.
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