You 

Implant an A.I. chip 
In the back of your neck 
And it can learn to conduct all the 
Trivia 
And autonomic stuff of life 
For you 
Saving you having to live 
Through a misery of the mundane. 

* 

Allow it to be your P.A. 
And H.R. –  
Screening and managing nuisance 
Callers 
And canvassers and spam and 
Promotional ads and trolls: 
Spare yourself all that as you owe it 
To yourself, you know? 

* 

Activate its night function 
So it can work while you sleep 
To get twice the amount done. 
Become  
Richer, and freer, and off 
The clock and out of the rat race 
Just as you want 
Where you want and when you want! 

* 

Take yourself 
On a holiday 
From yourself 
Leaving 
Stress, mental pain and body 
To your stand-in, proxy and staff 
And ascend to paradise 
Never to return. 

Something to Look forward to 

Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero 
In 2015 announced he would perform 
A head transplant 
Two years hence 
For a paraplegic. 

* 

There were rumblings about ethics 
But everyone was interested 
to see if it could be done 
Because it would mean immortality 
Going from body to body to body. 

* 

Yet the test-subject withdrew 
At the last moment 
Because he’d become a father –  
And people were sort of relieved 
That ethics had not been compromised. 

* 

And there it ended 
Except police report finding a homeless man’s head, 
So perhaps they should be on the look out 
For his body walking around 
With a smiling new owner. 

Space Opera 

What will the end sound like? 
Will it be soothing and heavenly 
Or discordant and hellish 
Perhaps the Nokia phone jingle 
Or Microsoft’s bebop ditty? 
I think they’re one and the same maybe. 

- 

What instruments will play accompaniment? 
Lyrical weapons, melodious machines or 
Perhaps there will only be a fade 
To silence. 

- 

Will there be a prelude 
Or at least some notice 
Possibly an interlude 
With messages from our sponsors? 
And what of refreshments 
While we enjoy the sound and light 
show? Snacks, perchance? 
And will there be a conductor? 

- 

Oh, of course there’ll be 
An angelic choir 
Or capering demonic dancers… 
Hopefully it’s all sold out. 

Author’s Biography

A J Dalton (www.ajdalton.eu) is a UK-based SFF writer. He has published the Empire of the Saviours trilogy with Gollancz Orion, and various collections with Kristell Ink and Luna Press. He also runs the online storytelling community http://www.creativewritinghq.com on behalf of Middlesex University - all welcome! He lives with a monstrously oppressive cat named Cleopatra.