Published 6 September 20246 September 2024 · Poetry / Friday Poetry Debts of the robots Corey Wakeling Repaying the debts of robots, I see me in your screen fatally, which is to say oozed certainty across a whistle of craft.The rhythm Bauhaus once had for us, like stepsto the apex, auto-antiphrastic pulse to a skyward turnpike recomposed. Bathed in crude, parcelled dry with ply, wastrel bornof the plastic nowhere breached by the faint.The vernacular machine of doom returned to the plaza, with exclamation. But they never wrote about Ireland. Cybridfood. Somehow, we blandish as the winnerscrest. You are sandwiched in surface, calculates no-one. Calculates you. I see you in my screen fatally, which is to say, you—calculates no-one. Calculatessurface in. Sandwiched, are you. Crest,winners, the as-blandish we, somehow. Food cybrid, Ireland about. Wrote never. They, but. Exclamation with. Plaza, the. To returneddoom. Of machine vernacular, thefaint. The by, breached nowhere plastic. The of born wastrel, ply with dry. Parcelled. Crude. In bathed. Recomposed. Turnpike skyward, a ‘topulse’. Auto-antiphrastic. Apex the. Tosteps like us. For, had once Bauhaus rhythm, the craft. Of whistle. A. Across certainty oozed say to. Is which, fatally. Screen your in me. See I.These stravaiging hands, cradling your phantoms,but ignoring the billabongs. The hard right becomes a hook. Raptoresque pursuits of hiding. Scales where woundsonce whorled. I have been borrowed, of course,where once I flowered. Terribly, terribly a reader. Pilbara rivulets of sweat. No purport to address you differently. Where onceRobo-debt took you rabbit-holing. They will speak of ourdigital ipseity as a carapace; the carcass as a rainforest. We knew it was all about the water-coloured crystal. The hard right steals my beak.Beak, my steals. Right. Hard, the crystal-colouredwater, the about all was. It knew we rainforest. A as carcass. The carapace. A as ipseity. Digital our; of speak, will. They, rabbit-holing; you,took. Robo-debt once. Where differently. You address topurport. No sweat. Of rivulets Pilbara reader. A terribly, terribly flowered I. Once where course of borrowed been have I whorled once,wounds where scales. Hiding of pursuitsraptoresque, hook a ... Becomes right. Hard, thebillabongs.The ignoring.Image: Afif Ramdhasuma Corey Wakeling Corey Wakeling is a writer, scholar, and translator living in Tokyo. In 2013, he was granted a PhD in English and theatre studies at the University of Melbourne. Corey has lived in Japan since 2015, currently working as an associate professor of English literature at Aoyama Gakuin University. His most recent poetry collection, Uncle of Cats, appears with Cordite in 2024. More by Corey Wakeling › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 7 March 20257 March 2025 · Poetry 3 songs for Charles Darwin John Forbes begins with languor, / the past tense of caress / which, besides flies & heat haze / post stress, / the intense air supplies — no ostrich feather fans / or punkahs needed — just to be at rest. 14 February 202514 February 2025 · Poetry 9 to 5 Dave Drayton volunteer to clown / undermine an award / construct to heave / interfere in class / dismantle if civil / disregard no cause / freelance at ennui