Intelligence, Charged by the Hour
by Tyler Lemley
Brain wave meter maids.
No card, chip only.
Skip the coffee, ask a question.
Cough it up for cognition.
Alternatively, there’s after-dark
brainiacs dealing out discernment.
First hit of IQ’s free.
Nah, sorry. Don’t got math today.
Speakeasy round back’s
got comebacks on tap,
pick-up line pickle backs,
top shelf self-help.
Lucky if your job
subsidizes your synapses.
If you’re a 1099 contractor
you can claim that shit, I think.
Trick is you gotta think
quick. Always go gut.
Careful contemplation is for
the country club crowd.
You here about that Canadian
cartel? Smuggling down swallowed
thought bubble balloons.
They cut that shit with dementia.
Why don’t you come over tonight?
We can make like the old days.
We’ll do lines of code and write
poetry on the backs of our eyelids.
Tyler Lemley is a queer Texan poet with a degree in Theatre Arts and English from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. They have been published in Fourteen Hills, The Tusculum Review, Black Fox Literary, and elsewhere. They were a finalist for the Pinch Literary Award.
