Jane Yolen Reads Robot Baby
Robot Baby was published in Multiverse: an international anthology of science fiction poetry, edited by Rachel Plummer and Russell Jones.
Robot Baby
Jane Yolen
Birthed in the body shop,
polished by the nurse,
it rests in your arm
without movement or thought,
until you speak.
Its name brings life.
Excalibur.
though you will always
call it Callie.
It creaks awake.
The manual instructs:
change its oil
every few hours,
Free oilcan attached.
Use diapers for leaks.
It will never grow old,
only rust if you leave it out
too long in the rain.
It won’t smoke dope,
get depressed, talk back.
It will care for you in your old age.
Jane Yolen has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America. She has written over 370 books, many poems (including SF poetry), won numerous awards including the Nebula (twice), and is a past president of SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America).
She splits her time between her home in Massachusetts and her house in Scotland.
Find out more about Jane Yolen:
web: www.janeyolen.com twitter: @janeyolen
Multiverse: an international anthology of science fiction poetry
Edited by Rachel Plummer and Russell Jones
Come on a journey through time and space, viewing strange lives and meeting even stranger lifeforms from the darkest depths and brightest sparks of the imagination. Introducing Multiverse: an international anthology of science fiction poetry!
This landmark anthology includes more than 170 sci-fi poems by 70 contemporary writers from around the world, including Jane Yolen, Harry Josephine Giles, Sofia Rhei, Jenny Wong, James McGonigal, Fyodor Svarovsky, Joyce Chng, Vincente Luis Mora and Claire Askew.
Explore poems about robotics and romance, asteroids and arachnids, nukes and nanobots, worm holes, warp drives and future wars, with an international array of exciting modern poetic voices, to boldly go where no poetry has gone before…!
Multiverse is available in paperback and all digital formats from Shoreline of Infinity at Multiverse