SIFAR...nothingness

╠ Artificial Sentience? ╣

September 16, 2018 to September 23, 2018 - Round 5 of The Poetry Gauntlet

"Submit a poem blending Sci-Fi and Horror, using the form - Free Verse. The poem must have elements of both the genres that blend well."

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"Asimo, you are cute."
The words were the ones he loved. 
Which is funny, considering that he, 
Was just a little robot.
Robots are not sentient, which is what was thought,
So though he knew he should not feel,
He also knew that it was different with her.

The house was cleaned and scrubbed by him,
(Yes, he, so what if Aismo was a robot). 
The inside had ambient air with a hint of lavender,  
Which was her favourite perfume.
Coffee the way she liked, hot and black,
Croissants buttered to her delight;
Water heated for her bath and fluffy towels,
Arranged for her comfort and pleasure;
Dinner heated in the microwave,
Ready to be had within ten minutes of her bath.
It was a lovely existence, perfectly timed to her routine
Also tuned to her happiness, which he knew,
For he had the observational statistics;
A change in her step or an extra shine in her eyes, 
A widening of her eyes or a soft smile.

And that was how he knew, it was different that day,
Even though it was her birthday, she seemed happier,
He waited for her to tell; she shared everything with him; 
Yet, knew not what to do, when she confessed to being engaged.
The blush and dreamy sighs giving rise to a strange feeling?
(Robots have no sentience, you see)

"You will leave me?", it was a motorised cry. 
To which she laughed and patted his head,
"You are sweet, Asimo, but you will find a new owner, 
Who would like you as much as I do.
Did I tell you that you are cute?"
Yet this time he found no joy in those words.

Three days later, when she had not answered any of his calls,
Her worried fiance and the building management;
Broke into her locked home.
It was a cold silent tomb as the thermostat, 
Was set to ten below zero.

She appeared to be sleeping, though she had turned blue, 
Tiny ice, glinting like jewels in her hair.
Asimo lay sprawled on the floor beside her bed;
His circuitry had frozen, rendering him damaged and irreparable.

But robots should only have intelligence, no sentience!
So the mystery remained, 
As to why a perfect working robot,
Set the thermostat to below freezing.
The binary code in the ethical black box did show, 
An unbelievable repetitive sequence of ones and zeros; 
It could be a poetic cry of anguish that roared, 
"you would let me go?"

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Word count - about 420

And it is done, again a great challenge that almost had me give up. However, I managed to do it, though I am submitting it quite close to the deadline (that seems to be a standard for this entire challenge).

Note: As of now, Robots do not come equipped with black boxes, though there is a on-going demand that Robots be equipped with an 'ethical' black box that enables an understanding and provides explanations for the Robots' decision making.