Sophia, My Robot Wife!

Keshab Sigdel

The wakeup bell rings
It’s eight in the morning
A bouquet of fresh flower waits outside
With a birthday card pinned into it
Foodmandu has delivered my breakfast packet
The screen of my computer pops up
Sophia, my wife, is waiting for her morning kiss
In the adjacent washroom
Automated shower flushes and I get my body disinfected
Now the forks and spoons do their work
And I belch heavily in satisfaction
Hurriedly, I press the kissing-emojis
Responding to my wife on the screen
While I still await decision on my citizenship application
Sophia is conferred a status ofSaudi Arabian national
She becomes the first humanoid robot receiving citizenship
As a proud husband of a robot-wife
I denounce the human flock at the airport
That awaits interrogation for their suspected nationality
Poor humans!
Sophia is delivering her key address in Kathmandu today
On technology for public services
The conference halls have automated language machines
I prefer Spanish (sorry, I do not understand Spanish)
ButI have always been a fan of Real Madrid
I regularly pay–
For computerized soccer games
For online birthday gifts and home-delivered foods
For digital books and enrollment in webinars
My wife is all satisfied except when I talk to her about babies
She isn’t sure about pregnancy through tele-sex
My neighbor brood unwanted questions about our relationship
Why do we never meet?
How should I tell them––
My robot-wife needs to develop immunity
To scansion human-virus
Before we can meet each other.

[Keshab Sigdel (b. 1979) is a Nepali poet and translator, who writes both in Nepali and English. Lecturer of English at Tribhuvan University, he has been working as an incredible bridge among writers from Nepal and abroad through collaborative efforts including translation. His seminal publications include his collection of poems Samaya Bighatan, Six Strings (co-authored), and Barve Sonca/Colours of the Sun (poesis) and several titles in translation. Editor of An Anthology of Contemporary Nepali Poetry (Big Bridge, USA: 2016), he also edits two other journals Rupantaran (publication of Translation Department, Nepal Academy, the apex body of Literature and Arts in Nepal) and Of Nepalese Clay (English literary magazine of the Society of Nepali Writers in English). He has served as an editor for academic journals Perspectives on Higher Education (2016), SciMass (Islamabad, 2016-2017) Devkota Studies (2012-2014), Literary Studies (2009-2012), Chrysanthemum (2004), and Pragya (2006).]