Make or Bake! by JT Welsch

These shows remind me
why I don’t cook.
Ah, nor do I make my own clothes.
The plumber’s here, singing
to the toilet. Now how
about a pie shaped like a toilet?

It’s like my piano teacher
used to say, (as if I didn’t know):
some people are born
to play the piano,
others to move them.
Which one invented cooking?

Was it like Eden, and we
had to distinguish ourselves?
Oh, but it’s so relaxing.
What do you have to worry about?
Soon, robots will free us
for higher pursuits.

There can be a show
with robot chefs, judged by robots,
loved by robots everywhere.
And you can relax,
knowing they’re there,
these tasks a foreign country.

JT Welsch is a lecturer at York St John University. His most recent collection is Waterloo.