So on Thursday I went to see the Cyborg exhibit at the Edmonton Art Museum with a friend of mine from the Writing program. The exhibit was called The Uncanny: Experiments in Cyborg Culture. The concluding premise of the tour was that we are all, to some degree, already cyborgs, and asks the question; what does it mean to be human, what does it mean to be machine? Everything was there from performance art, stationary pieces, historical relics, to pop culture iconography (like AstroBoy), film, etc. etc. They showed clips of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and the 1927 classic Metropolis. There was an automaton that could sketch and write poetry, pieces of medical equipment like replacement hearts and those gastrointestinal cameras. Around every corner something whired, buzzed, clicked, banged, clunked, or spoke in ominously mechanic tones. It was fascinating. My friend and I had to concede that, indeed, we are cyborgs as well!
This one is inspired from one of the displays...

PLAY WITH ME?

She astroplanes
over the severity of inexplicable
synchronicity.
They're all brilliant
and wide-eyed with wisdom
fascinated by her candor
and natural aptitude
for glamours
because she knows
how to invoke
the sound of crystal bells
in the subtlest of glances
because she knows
how to will beliefs into truths
because she knows
she knows
God help her,
she knows
how to let herself trip and fall
into awkward beauty
she knows how to close her eyes
and drop into every daydream
and like a cat,
maintain the instinct
to land on her feet.