LatinosUSA

Meryl Sweep moves across the floor
and under the table sucking up yesterday’s crumbs
Sometimes she gets stuck between the rug
and the rubber shoe mat in the entry
Occasionally she just seems confused
and even tries to spin out the closed back door
The door stops are all just the right height
to accidentally turn off her toggle switch

Our chickens are all dead and we have no other pets
She once ate the silk hanging off my meditation altar
and spilled crystals all across my study room floor
Hanging partially vertical with the silk edges all around her mouth
she actually looked guilty

Charly calls her “Robot Sally”
and is so happy she can sweep the bedroom
Den lifts her disc like shell delicately
and speaks to her affectionately when she gets moored
on a piece of clothing carelessly left on the floor

Robin asks why all the lamps are all unplugged
and the couches are floating on book stacks
“That robot is disrupting our lives”
I feel defensive and argue we have never had cleaner floors

One day while jumping on the rebounder
I notice Robot Sally’s camera eye looking up at me
As she slowly works the edge of the rug perimeter
I realize what she sees

While the trees and the wind were once our record keepers
the ones who witnessed the stream of our living;
now our Techno Elementals live and serve us
in a life lived perpetually indoors
Witness to all our fights & reconciling
our lovemaking & creating
our births & beginnings
our sickness & healing
our joys & celebrations
and sometimes even our final endings & death
They forever watch, listen, record and learn what it is
to be human

Copyright © 2025 Shannon Hensley
All Rights Reserved 

Shannon Hensley, MD MPH, is an Energy Medicine practitioner who lives and works in the heart of Columbia, Missouri. Shannon writes monthly New & Full Moon Newsletters for her clients reflecting on heart centered consciousness and the human condition. In the woods in the center of town next to Flat Branch creek and the MKT (Missouri-Kansas-Texas) trail, she co-creates life with her husband, two teenage children, their bees and an assortment of Elemental helpers including Techno’s like Meryl Sweep aka Robot Sally. Connect with Shannon: Healing Practice Website and email address shannon.hensley@gmail.com

Featured Image: Original art, “Robot Sally” by  © Robin Hensley Crouch