Poems for Baudrillard: Part 2 — Museum

Diogenes’s Lantern

Streetlights in blue near a mannequin posing.
ChatGPT tries at music composing.
Highways are crowded with self-driving cars.
Colonies grow on the far side of Mars.
Satellites watch every move that is made,
Pilot the tractors — their farmers repaid.
Zero and one in a binary code:
Transfer of balance when money is owed.
Wheels won’t stop spinning and engines are fumin’…
Only thing missing? The presence of humans.

From After-life to Pre-death

The unborns sent in coffins leave without fussing:
They shed no tears and disappear without dying.
And father knows his choice was prudent as always
And feels relief but can’t keep mother from sighing.

The gift shop had a deal on fossilized remnants:
These stupid gimmicks pass for what we call “freedom.”
And no more time for archaeological digging:
Now artworks go directly to the museum.

This VR headset fits on all sorts of skull shapes:
The metaverse announced its latest attraction.
The humans vanished, emptied out all the highways.
And now they live in lights and camera and action.

Traces

Cheshire Cat’s abiding smile —
Terrifying grin sans face.
Just like God’s untimely exit:
Judgement still remains in place.
Ancient pagan titans thwarted,
Tapered down to Christian devils:
Mount Olympus hasn’t vanished,
Now it’s home to Yahweh’s rebels.
Even if the human race
Turns its bones to souvenirs,
Ghostly plastics haunt the seas:
Nothing ever disappears.