Oh look it becomes virtual—
The Fingerprints are lifted, their
Little Stain—no one’s need is on it: it is
Clean: never has been or will be, touched—²
Machines break down the nerves, their rhythm is Different
From Life’s rhythm, their steel & plastic voices Wedge
Themselves between each Beat of the Heart—³
Machinery Obliterates all distinctions.⁴
We have come a long way to
Nowhere, unwillingly dragged by that
Monstrous technical industrial giant called Progress.⁵
Robot must move, move Robot move—but
Why? Move move move, Robot forever Move.⁶
The V-Programmers use us to do their story—⁷
Half digital animal—
Half child hologram—⁸
We build our Computer Love.⁹
It could all be done or left Undone
Just as well by the machines …¹⁰
¹ Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
² Jorie Graham, Exchange
³ Tom Hennen, Winter Nap
⁴ Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels tr. Samuel Moore, The Communist Manifesto
⁵ Rodolpho “Corky” Gonzales, I Am Joaquin
⁶ Don Hertzfeldt, World of Tomorrow
⁷ Ursula K. Le Guin, Paradises Lost
⁸ Olga Ravn tr. Martin Aitken, The Employees
⁹ Neil Young, Revolution Blues
¹⁰ Hermann Hesse tr. Basil Creighton, Steppenwolf