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| As developers race to build more powerful AI models, and lawsuits over copyright mount, a cottage industry has sprung up to supply them with millions of physical books that are stripped apart, scanned into training datasets, and discarded. —Yahoo! Finance, July 29, 2026. AI-generated graphic by NightCafé for The New Verse News. |
Soft, almost like felt,
worn down by so
many different thumbs.
Slice. Scan. Destroy. Repeat.
A warm smell with
just a hint of must,
memories of comfort.
Slice. Scan. Destroy. Repeat.
Words carefully arranged,
adjusted, revised just so,
telling a narrative.
Slice. Scan. Destroy. Repeat.
Knowledge, hard won,
meant to be shared,
illustrated clearly.
Slice. Scan. Destroy. Repeat.
Cultural threads woven
together to patch
gaps in society.
Slice. Scan. Destroy. Repeat.
Lone voices calling
from the past, trying
to share themselves.
Slice. Scan. Destroy. Repeat.
What cost will we pay
when the future devours
the past?
Slice. Scan. Destroy. Repeat.
Brydon Caldwell is a long time teacher and emerging writer from the western edge of the Canadian Shield. He was recently named the winner of the 2026 Icelandic Festival of Manitoba Short Story Contest. His writing can be found in The Ekphrastic Review, The Fib Review, and the upcoming Fear Dealer, Opolis 2026, and Still From Somewhere anthologies.
