A Robot's Concept Of Beauty

Met a new friend today

His name is Zert.

Zert.

What a name.

Asked where he was from

Normal question right?

He said a place called Factory

I figured it was a town from

Massachusetts.

He talked kind of funny

Almost mechanical

But he always said the

Right things.

But I shouldn't say always;

No ones perfect, right?

Like this one time

What he said seemed a little weird

Like a bridge over land

A woman was walking down the street, towards us

Homeless sort. Cocaine addicted body.

Deep pools of dark blood surrounding her massive eyes containing

No light. Starless night in her smile

Starved, like she ate cigarettes for her meals,

Hard

Coarse, sandpaper skin.

Zert said

Beautiful.

I was shocked and said no, how could you think that? She's ghastly.

He explained, in a poetic verse:

She's so skinny you can see her ribs

No clothes completely cover her

Big, drawn out eyes like dark windows,

high, bony cheekbones,

that sickly look,

isn't that what your world

defines as beautiful?

No, I replied.

The vision of her scraped shoulders covered by matted strips of clothing

Her deathlike aura

She could die tomorrow.

But then

I realized

Donned with shiny clothes

And a mask of cosmetics

She would look exactly

What we are told

Is

Beautiful.

Isn't that the stark reality

An angular object

In ugly light

Really

Why is the assumed image

So unattainable

For a comfortable person?

Or do we have to be in pain

To be beautiful.

Yes, it was weird

But it brought on some realizations

Why do you say it like that, I asked Zert,

'my world's concept of beauty'

your part of this world, aren't you?

Not really, he replied

I was taught everything that you,

Normal people, what you think, feel,

Everything I say is planned and examined to get the right response.

An interesting response, but after I had gone home

And said goodbye to Zert, a robot,

I thought: normal people like me?

No one has the same thoughts, feelings,

You cannot predict what people are going to say all the time, not even a robot.

No ones normal.

Then why did I think he always said the right thing?

It was a good day

I wonder who I will meet tomorrow.