Quest

A.I. is writing novels, comes the news.

What good is my typewriter? I donate
It to an orphanage where it can earn
Forgiveness for becoming obsolete.

My muse, all patient ardor, has no more
Use than a drunk, spent, ragdolled at the bar.

Pre-sharpened pencils plead their case, ensconced
In a chipped vase that would have less to do
Without their wooden stalks and rubber buds.

Inventing a compliant time machine,
I dial 8th Century — instructions packed
For making ink and parchment — bribe nightjars
And owls to aid another predator,
Alerting me to Grendel and his Mom.

Native New Yorker LindaAnn LoSchiavo, a Pushcart Prize, Rhysling Award, Best of the Net, and Dwarf Stars nominee, is a member of SFPA, The British Fantasy Society, and The Dramatists Guild. Elgin Award winner "A Route Obscure and Lonely," "Concupiscent Consumption," "Women Who Were Warned," Firecracker Award, Balcones Poetry Prize, Quill and Ink, and IPPY Award nominee "Messengers of the Macabre" [co-written with David Davies], "Apprenticed to the Night" [Beacon Books, 2023], and "Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide" [Ukiyoto Publishing, 2023] are her latest poetry titles. LindaAnn Literary: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHm1NZIlTZybLTFA44wwdfg

Find more by LindaAnn LoSchiavo in the Author Index.