Facade

For Day 14 of NaPoWriMo, I was challenged to write a poem involving technological advances. My poem is inspired by how people use artificial intelligence to create fake videos and images of themselves and others. 

Facade
By Candace Shultz

Are you real?
Or are you just pixels
of a face rearranged
on the screen to look
like someone else?
Do I even know you?

What is truth anymore
when everything
can be turned to lies?

I don't want a facsimile,
a false truth, an illusion,
an artificial face hiding 
behind a computer screen.

Give me authenticity.
Be genuine. Be real
in your words and actions,
in the face you present
to me and the world.
Give me your truth,
and I will give you mine.