Used to be I could talk to myself

Oftentimes no one would hear

When someone came within earshot

Muttering would ensue

Never seemed to matter

My attire, well, maybe not pajama bottoms

Outside the house

Unless getting the Sunday paper

Well now that the Sunday paper has been mentioned

Quotes may be used

As an example

The New York Times

Don’t read too much into that politically

Not for this reference anyway

Actually I need not even reference the paper

Or any quotes I might care to use

Why?

‘Sensorvault’

Never heard of it

Neither had I

‘Sensorvault’

Is another word for ‘Memory’

Google, and here I can quote liberally

Accumulates EVERYTHING about you

What you look for, where you shop

Who your friends are

And does it in 3D

Even predicts where you are going

And what you will do

Never really cared

As haven’t really thought

I had anything to hide

Even came to consider

‘Sensorvault’ as a possible ally

For memory care

Sending an email

Just start typing

Names pop up

Select one

Ideas pop up

Word prediction

When replying to an email

Automated suggestions

Are just a click away

That’s a nice touch

All under the guise of

AI. Artificial intelligence

What is artificial about that?

They are picking my brains

Well okay there questions about that

But then

The coup de Grau

The piece de resistance

Facial recognition

There I had them

Oftentimes

While surfing Facebook

Would take a good look

At current pictures

Of old friends

And I mean old like my age

Sometimes there was a glimmer

Of a memory of that person

Other times did not have a clue

Then of course my visage appeared

Some heinous apparition

No modeling clay could reform

Nor heavy makeup conceal

The ravages of time

Even Facial recognition

Would blink

At the challenge

But my real grievance with

The collection of my memories

Is that I don’t want Google

Writing my autobiography

Surely I can’t be written with

Auto-correct even though oftentimes

I wish I could auto-correct parts of my life

So as I am in the last chapters of my book

Have decided there will be no photos

Thank you very much

FXC

4/16/19