One day all cats will look the same Cloned and birthed in an immaculate conception Never realising that Catalan’s constant Like most scientifically useful irrationalities Is only ever a difficult approximation Now George Orwell’s copyright has expired The proliferation of cheaply reproduced copies Will mean that one day 1984 Through the caterpillar smudges Of our AI’s astigmatic Optical character recognition Will become once more 1948; almost none will care Love will eventually devolve to Hate Such words will become in sleight and disregard An episode in the great new patriotic histories Politicians will declare, from war We are making the same cities where you’ve always lived But now with close and unfamiliar neighbours Granting that the square footage is quite small But the landscapes bleakly generous A synthetic stone will last two hundred years Or thereabouts, until rain and moss have left All declarations of love and loss and piety effaced Pi will become 3.1612...recurring While we who contemplate perfection Hoping for a universe in which The ratio of the diameter To the circumference of the circle Always and only ever equals three Under the spreading chestnut tree Can, but in our chagrin, only wait
