2023:  Delicious Bytes

Heat up your ovens and make festive noise, 

here comes the occasion that’s filled with great joys,

when everyone’s happy, except for the birds,

and I take a moment to bend a few words.

You know that November’s my favorite, it’s clear!

So put aside politics, conflict, and fear

and join me for just a few stanzas of fun.

I promise there’s something to please everyone.

But what if I told you, just picture it now,

that something had somewhere gone sideways somehow?

What if the words you’re at this moment reading

had come from a place that’s just slightly misleading?

They sound quite familiar, I know you’ll agree,

but suppose for a second, perhaps it could be

that these cheerful lines weren’t written by me.

What if the author was Chat GPT?

It seems quite unlikely, and rather far-fetched — 

computers can’t taste and their talents are stretched

by the prospect of placating all of our wishes.

I think it’s beyond them to honor these dishes.

Like stuffing and gravy and light meat and dark,

and sauce from cranberries, it’s all so remark-

able.  Please say you think that it couldn’t be true

that I’m being replaced by a fast CPU.

Yet as the delights go from station to station,

remember we’re battered by misinformation.

And even dessert, be it pies or it cakes

could be an inedible pile of deep-fakes.

So mind your resources and check all your facts,

and don’t let your phone be a thing that distracts

from your holiday table with family and friends, 

where your appetite’s finite but love never ends.

I challenged the chatbot to give me a quote

that sums up Thanksgiving, and here’s what it wrote:

“Families gather, their spirits so high

to feast on a banquet that stretches the sky.”