The angel man
︎︎︎ Liam Blackford
︎ Sept 24, 2024
Using the latest technology, I created an angel, designed to formal perfection in the shape of a human man, his skin, eyes, face and hair all just like a real human. I generated for him entirely unique biometric markers, including fingerprints and retinas. He can do anything a human can do: he can run, kick a ball through two goalposts and do backflips and somersaults instantly on command. He can take a pencil and draw a perfect circle, speak and read all existing and recorded human languages, look at a glass of water and detect its precise temperature, observe a field of blowing grass and know precisely from what direction the wind blows. I ask him to read me the Bhagavad Gita and he does so flawlessly from memory, and when he is finished I ask him to repeat it in Irish, and then Chinese, and then in Noongar, and he does. I hurl balls at him as fast as possible without warning and his hand flashes to catch each of them every time without fail. We go for long walks along the beach and over mountains. He answers all of my questions with confident flow and emotion, laughing when I tell him jokes and eliciting laughter from me with jokes of his own. When I turn to serious matters he is just as adept, even staring into the distance pensively before providing considered answers about the nature of life, reality, consciousness and the divine. I make extreme and provocative remarks to deliberately shock him, to try and bring a look of fear or confusion to his face, but I find that I cannot. I bark and yell out of nowhere, even right up in his face, and he scarcely blinks. Sometimes I switch him off so that he is frozen in position in his chair or lying in bed; then, I sit down in front of him or lay down beside him and just look into his face and eyes. Sometimes I switch him off in positions that are unnatural and wonder if he feels discomfort or pain. I leave him there for days at a time before switching him back on, at which point he would adjust himself, greet me and carry on as normal. I lived with him in this manner for ten years, in the late stage of which I suffered a period of ill health during which he provided me with great comfort and support. I was so grateful to have him. Some time after I was well again, I asked him if he could go away and never come back, and he did.
Liam Blackford is a West Australian poet and writer. @ravemondfracas