Two Poems
Paul Burgess
Machine Learning
The language teacher, call him Mister Knight,
consults with Aiko Plus to save some time.
His helpful bot suggests the children write
a piece of verse to nurture love of rhyme.
The children bask in Teacher’s ardent praise
about the way their writing skill’s progressed:
“You’ve grown so much in only seven days.
Of course, I’m truly thrilled, beyond impressed.”
Though Knight’s a busy man, he’s skimmed a part
or two of verse his favorite kids have penned
and hears the rest are masterworks of art
according to his artificial friend,
who’s read the work and seemingly enjoyed
the rhymes composed by bots the kids employed.
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Published in The Road Not Taken, 2026
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Paul’s notes: “In this piece, I’ve tried to dress up fear and sadness in a little bit of humor. In other words, I wish that I could give more than a weak, uncomfortable laugh and say that the scenario felt like satire, but even I’m not so sure that I’m really kidding or exaggerating this time.
“‘Aiko’ is a female Japanese name. The most common version of the name features the characters for ‘love’ (愛) and ‘child’ (子), with the ‘child’ part being a common second half of female names. In this case, the name belongs to a fictional chatbot that I have given a cheesy yet plausible name based on a weak pun on ‘Ai’ and ‘A.I.’”
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A Teacher’s Epitaph
Some students, glad they’d aced the test,
may say I was the very best
while other kids who’d often fail
recall my devil horns and tail.
But those who’d fail and those who’d pass
agree I had a lot of class.
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Paul’s notes: “Thomas Hardy, one of my favorite poets, wrote a handful of fictional epitaphs, and those have inspired me to write an absurd number of epitaphs ranging in tone from earnest and reflective to downright stupid. This one is somewhat silly, but I think it fits this issue’s theme nicely and is a ‘classy’ piece.”
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Paul Burgess is the sole proprietor of a business in Lexington, Kentucky that offers ESL classes in addition to English, Japanese, and Spanish-language translation and interpretation services. He has recently contributed work to Blue Unicorn, The Road Not Taken, Light, Apricity, Star*Line, The Orchards, Snakeskin, Pulsebeat, and several other publications. Paul’s blog is here and readers are welcome to contact him via this link.
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