Met a new friend today
His name is Zert.
Zert.
What a name.
Asked where he was from
Normal question right?
He said a place called Factory
I figured it was a town from
Massachusetts.
He talked kind of funny
Almost mechanical
But he always said the
Right things.
But I shouldn’t say always;
No ones perfect, right?
Like this one time
What he said seemed a little weird
Like a bridge over land
A woman was walking down the street, towards us
Homeless sort. Cocaine addicted body.
Deep pools of dark blood surrounding her massive eyes containing
No light. Starless night in her smile
Starved, like she ate cigarettes for her meals,
Hard
Coarse, sandpaper skin.
Zert said
Beautiful.
I was shocked and said no, how could you think that? She’s ghastly.
He explained, in a poetic verse:
She’s so skinny you can see her ribs
No clothes completely cover her
Big, drawn out eyes like dark windows,
high, bony cheekbones,
that sickly look,
isn’t that what your world
defines as beautiful?
No, I replied.
The vision of her scraped shoulders covered by matted strips of clothing
Her deathlike aura
She could die tomorrow.
But then
I realized
Donned with shiny clothes
And a mask of cosmetics
She would look exactly
What we are told
Is
Beautiful.
Isn’t that the stark reality
An angular object
In ugly light
Really
Why is the assumed image
So unattainable
For a comfortable person?
Or do we have to be in pain
To be beautiful.
Yes, it was weird
But it brought on some realizations
Why do you say it like that, I asked Zert,
‘my world’s concept of beauty’
your part of this world, aren’t you?
Not really, he replied
I was taught everything that you,
Normal people, what you think, feel,
Everything I say is planned and examined to get the right response.
An interesting response, but after I had gone home
And said goodbye to Zert, a robot,
I thought: normal people like me?
No one has the same thoughts, feelings,
You cannot predict what people are going to say all the time, not even a robot.
No ones normal.
Then why did I think he always said the right thing?
It was a good day
I wonder who I will meet tomorrow.