Stevie's Dream

When the atom splitter

Was created

They played ‘Isn’t She Lovely?’

We had never met

Any machine

With the personality

Of the atom splitter

And so the creators

Wanted to welcome

It into the world

With some of the world’s

Most beautiful music

That’s why they played

Stevie Wonder

And ‘Isn’t She Lovely?’

And Janelle Monae’s

Dirty Computer

Machines are like children

And they’re not

They are in that they’re impressionable

And they’re not in the sense

That the impression is made

Almost instantaneously

As soon as they are

They are something

You can have an effect on

What a miraculous thing

To place your hands on something

And say ‘This is your purpose’

‘This is why you’re here’

To split atoms

And maybe more

Who knows?

Our parents bring us

Into this world

With ideas about

Who we’re going to be

And what we should be able

To accomplish

And then we live up to those things

Or we frequently do not

The atom splitter

Failed to split an atom

The first time

It was turned on

The creators were not

Discouraged

But they made adjustments

And those adjustments then

Needed to be adjusted

And the entire time

They played ‘Isn’t She Lovely?’

Because they wanted to remind

The atom splitter

That she is, indeed, very lovely

She failed to split an atom

The second and third time

They asked her to

And many, many times after that

No matter how many times

She was unable

To achieve her objective

It was important to the people

Who made her

To let her know

That you are not here to do

What other people

Brought you into this world to do

You are brought here

With a great purpose

That is sometimes known to you

And sometimes not

And sometimes you only discover it

After you have failed at the purpose

Other people have told you

You’re meant to have

And sometimes

After your creators have looked at you

And told you

That while they had hoped

You’d be able

To split an atom or two

It is all right

If you do not

You decide

That perhaps that is something

You would like to do

And you do it

The atom splitter split an atom

On her three thousandth and forty-third try

And then she never did it again

We’re not sure

What they did with her

After her success

But we think of her often

And when we do

We find a way

To play ‘Isn’t She Lovely?’

Or we sing a little bit of it

To ourselves

It’s a nice reminder

That there’s so much about each other

That can surprise

And delight us

But first we must be willing

To look at something

As soon as it enters this world

And marvel that its here at all

When so much

Has not happened

Anything that has

Is a wonder