Poem-a-Day

I read on my iPhone, stopped at a red light, & next to my car   
a child is playing a street piano fast, counting THREE, TWO, ONE,  
yelling over traffic, I’m PLAYING, sun on the child’s face  

& fingers skittering on keys— 
neurons direct these fingers, a consciousness no one shares  
that says, high notes now, then low, & laughter, 

& an adult urges the child to  come-on-let’s-go,  
but the child plays a crescendo & says  
I AM FINISHING MY SONG— 

& artificial intelligence can use recurrent neural networks to create  
piano music & AI can drive cars, but my eyes tire, 
my eyes are animal eyes with animal need to gaze out 

at red lights & be given the useless-lovely data of a sparrow skimming 
to a telephone wire, a child at a rainbow-painted stringed instrument,  
the sparrow hopping on a wire, the child pressing keys like a question:  

low, high? Low, high? Perception a note not played again, 
& when the light turns green my car drives, 
I am finishing my song. The light is yellow now.