UNPLUGGED

It was going to change our lives.

Machines who reasoned with us.

Fascinating conversations held

philosophers in their spell.

We saw things we had never seen.

Travelled to places beyond our dreams.

Everything we desired appeared.

All we had to do was buy.

 

With guided hands it made

masterpieces within our reach.

Getting into minds of geniuses,

 it seemed so real.

All we had to do was buy.

Until we realised we were bought.

 

Reality that didn’t exist owned

our bodies and souls. Providing

everything. Basic needs.

Fantasies we didn’t know we had.

Purchased with a currency

that numbed the mind.

 

Roused from the dream.

Questioning how we lost the luxury

of using our hands and minds.

Stolen for over a century.

All we had to do was refuse to buy.

 

The awakening was hard fought.

Man’s friend became the enemy.

 The smell of burning flesh mingled

with smoke from exploding diodes

and acrid plastic death.

We fought and died to recover our self.

 

Now we carry our own water

to quench our mouths. Toil in fields

to feed our stomachs. A burden

worth the fight to free our minds,

to see with our own eyes,

create with our own brains.

 

With unguided hands poetry,

art, ingenuity will be our own.

Imagination returning to secure

our survival. Express thoughts,

speak with our mouths,

see beauty with free eyes.

 

We fought and died to retrieve humanity

stolen from us by our own machines.