Boyd Bauman
Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Boyd Bauman has won our writing contest in the open category on the theme Humanity with his poem "Tasks I Hope A.I. Can Never Accomplish, #117."
Boyd Bauman grew up on a small ranch south of Bern, Kansas, his dad the storyteller and mom the family scribe. His books of poetry are Cleave and Scheherazade Plays the Chestnut Tree Café, and his children’s book is The Heights of Love. After stints in New York, Colorado, Alaska, Japan, and Vietnam, Boyd now is a librarian and writer in Kansas City. Visit at boydbauman.weebly.com.
Tasks I Hope A.I. Can Never Accomplish, #117
Be married to the same woman 40-some years
(have to calculate awhile, but eventually
come up with the precise duration),
yet still wake before her,
grind the beans and boil the water,
and while the brew is steeping,
reach up and grab a couple oversize mugs,
particularly the one that’s been cracked and glued,
because it’s from that place you love
and may never make it back to
save in shared memories.
And here is the simplest,
most essential step in the recipe:
Pour a portion of the boiling water
into the cold empty cups.
May the learning curve forever be too steep,
that this steeping of what appears as nothing
compute as irrational,
superfluous to the program,
for what is it but the steeping of years of care,
consideration that still warms her heart,
yet in the recipe of gestures
that make us human,
may this be one passed down
through the generations.