artificial behaviour

by Salem Paige

         listen to the open
                        air—don’t you hear
         those wild fans whir
                        as mammal-bots lumber
         their slow way 
         back home (to their     charging
         stations, the                 black docks hidden
         among the reeds

         to power down, processing 
                  overnight. asleep but alive,
                  still, downloading from the cloud
                  uploading to the         constellations

         of satellite data-farms, tracking
         every movement       
                  programmed or otherwise
       perfecting       internal code while 

                                 the rest of the world
                  sleeps, static—

Salem Paige is a trans, genderfluid poet whose works revolve around the exploration of identity and discomfort through narrative universes that combine nature and technology. Their works have appeared in their collection, The Third Self (2023) and chapbook to grow roots (2023), as well as more than a dozen literary magazines and a handful of poetry anthologies. More on Paige can be found on their website salempaige.com