The Robot Insane
Herb Kauderer
Once known as Maxine XY12
the robot lives nameless & alone
on an asteroid easily left,
if she only knew how.
Deep in a crater she works
augmenting
with nuclear reactions
power taken
from glimpses of the distant sun.
With such energy & isolation
she should be able
to do almost anything.
But she works at the mercy
of failed logic circuits
compelled to rebuild herself
over & over.
Throughout the endless process
she searches
for a lost rightness,
a rightness that will
never be hers again.
But trapped in her little hollow
she is free to believe
she can find anything.
first appeared in Of Unicorns & Spaceships #3 1994
collected in Mid-Course Correction April 16, 1999
