Whirly Bird hovers like a copter,
and gazes in your window.
He passes for a hummingbird
although his tiny eyes are lenses.
There’s nothing not subverted now,
recruited for the art of war.
He hovers like a copter
and when he whirs away
you’ll never know if he is just
an iridescent little bird like that you’ve always
loved, or a phony drone that’s got
your number and may return.
You will never know. We will never know.
Poem © 2016 David Ray. All Rights Reserved.
Photograph by Steve Jurvetson, Creative Commons License. The photograph shows a hummingbird drone being released by Regina Dugan, Director of DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), at a demonstration of the technology. DARPA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense and is responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. The photo presented here is a cropped version of the original.