AI Could Never Have Written This Poem Because by Paul Hostovsky

because because because because because

because of the wonderful things it does

like giving a nod

to an unforgettable song lyric

from a childhood

of unforgettable song lyrics

lyrics that (granted) may exist in a megadatacenter somewhere

that’s stealing water from humans

but that really live (live!)

in the kind of memory

that can’t be googled because

because because because because because

because it’s a human memory

of a broken heart

and if you type its keywords in a search field

it will never in a million years come up

with Faith Lubecki’s exact words to me

when I was sixteen

and she was eighteen and a senior

expert on the hydraulics of the penis

of her ex-boyfriend Mark Winkles

whom she forsook for my more literary point of view

for a month or two

(though I only ended up disproving

every borrowed theory of hydraulics

that between the two of us

I couldn’t come up with

for some odd and mortifying

unexplained reason)

then broke up with me and went back

to Mark Winkles

saying something about remaining friends

though I don’t remember her exact words

because because because because because

because I was devastated

and heartbroken as only the Tin Man

who didn’t even know he had a heart

until it got broke could be

Paul Hostovsky's poems have won a Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net Awards, the FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize, and have been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, Only Poems, The Writer's Almanac, and the Best American Poetry blog. Visit him at: https://paulhostovsky.com/