Who is What

It's been a while since I shared some poetry here, but lately I've been generating quite a lot of it. Here's just a little taste for you - I hope you enjoy it.

Who Is What

“Dining,”
I said into the phone.
No response.
“Dining,”
I repeated and waited.

“You know this is a real person, right?”

I started to apologize
But the voice cut me off,
“Just kidding,
you said ‘Dining’ -
let’s get you to the right place.”

Wait, what?

Did a machine just pretend
to be a human?
Did a person just impersonate
a recording?

My confusion lasted
exactly as long as it took
to connect with the
restaurant reservation system;
just as millions of dollars
in research and consumer analytics
no doubt predicted it would.