I See a Lot of Robots in Your Future

I See a Lot of Robots in Your Future

May 5, 2025 , ,

By JULIA KOLCHINSKY

& girls so many girls with long locks & red locks & curls & locked
doors you try to break into & out of & bare feet & the streets

you don’t look both ways crossing & all the ways you close your eyes & reach
to find what’s nearest by touch & touch & touch & touch &

touch my love you want to touch & be held even when touch
doesn’t want you back & the girls in the pool were twice

your age & you had them surround & carry you & touch
your shoulder when they were the Sharks or the Marcos & they don’t know

you are no Mino or Polo or game & they tell you it’s okay
when you touch them & from across the pool I see your hands reach

for their chests & glutes & thighs & no & no & no & no it’s not
okay I tell the girls & these are your bodies & at 12 & 13 & 14 & no

he is not excused because he’s so cute & young & no his hands are not without
intent & no this touch & touch & touch & this is not the first & robots

he says he will invent one that talks & laughs & plays & yes touches & wants
to be touched & yes I say your mind is limitless & yes I say to wanted

touch & even if you teach a robot how to feel its limbs will carry
your desires & no my love my hungry boundless little love & this

is not the same as want & yes you are still so young & yes
it may be too early to worry about the robots & girls & locks & bare

feet & touch & touch & touch & no
imaging want doesn’t make true

 

 

[Purchase Issue 29 here.]

Julia Kolchinsky is the author of four poetry collections: The Many Names for Mother, Don’t Touch the Bones, 40 WEEKS, and Parallax, finalist for the 2025 Miller Williams Poetry Prize. She is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Denison University.

From the beginning, The Common has brought you transportive writing and exciting new voices. We are committed to supporting writers and maintaining free, unrestricted access to our website, but we can’t do it without you. Become an integral part of our global community of readers and writers by donating today. No amount is too small. Thank you!

I See a Lot of Robots in Your Future

Related Posts

model plane

The Reading Life: The Acrobat

JIM SHEPARD
And Shep looked only a little chagrined, like someone had asked why he had never become an acrobat, and allowed as how he was sure it was very impressive, given how many distinguished people had praised it, but that it was not the kind of thing someone with his background could judge.

September 11, 2025

Damascene Dream

AYA LABANIEH
You raised me, tayteh, rocking me in your lap, spooning Quranic verses into my little ears, scrubbing the living daylights out of me in the bathtub. Slapping your thighs, “Ta’a, ta’a, ta’a,” you’d say to the lovebirds we raised, “Come, come, come,” and they’d fly, all three of them, out their cages in a flurry and land on your breasts, climb your gold chains, nestle against your cheeks.

September 10, 2025

Hitting a Wall and Making a Door: A Conversation between Phillis Levin and Diane Mehta

DIANE MEHTA and PHILLIS LEVIN
This conversation took place over the course of weeks—over daily phone calls and long emails, meals when they were in the same place, and a weekend in the Connecticut countryside. The poets share what they draw from each other’s work, and the work of others, exploring the pleasures of language, geometric movement, and formal constraint.

September 8, 2025