Witnessing A Butterfly or, How I lost all Fear of AI – Alice Walker | The Official Website for American Novelist & Poet

Looking at a butterfly
Black and silver
Glossy and intent:
It was having
A rendezvous
With the scarlet
Bougainvillea
Near the pool.
In & out
Among the leaves
Deep dives
Among the petals
It was intent.
What are you after?
I inquired.
It ignored
Me.
All of life
Was in its pursuit
Of nectar
Whereas
I wondered:
Bougainvillea is
So dry!
Does it even have
Any sweet
Wetness?
Apparently so.

The Butterfly
Its wings tiny
But
Flashing
Heroically,
Probed on.
It was not
Fixated on my
Behavior
As I was
Fixated on
It’s.
And that is when
I stopped
Being afraid
Of AI.

That it will
Run humans
Over
& leave us
Crawling ignorantly
In the dirt.

I saw we might
Transform
Into human
Butterflies
Disinterested
In AI’s alien ways
As we continue
Life
Of zillions
Of lifetimes
Fluttering about
Unaware of
Mechanical genius
Probing Life
All around us
(no matter
How dry )
For sweetness.