Fear Uncertainty Doubt
an outpouring of fragmented images and scattershot thought
Cathedral hum
Buzz of the racks of servers
Hooded servants tending to their machines
Absorbed in the satisfying drone
About their business bound
In the hush of the deserted
Searching for that lull,
That interconnectedness that falls sometimes
Where your feet are part of the ground and beyond
And the moment seems full and found
Or at least not tied to a million other strands,
Passed from hand to hand
Purpose, purpose, where have you gone?
The machines rumble on,
Processors whipping acres of data through thick twisting cables
Hanging of our every word, recording, changing, sending
But no value can be found there,
It is not a church, it is a lab,
And despite the promises of inherent chaos
We are blown back with inscrutable maths
While those who can seem to see,
In their countenance we cannot mark enlightened glee,
They would surely be happy if they knew,
And I would too.
No matter the angle,
Twisted into an awkward gaze,
I can only see out of these eyes, and use these colours
To paint the signals and stimuli and others
No matter the stance,
Hanging around the entrance to the maze
I can only touch with these hands, and feel these pains
Too faint to penetrate the passers by
What is worthy of the power?
The booming repetition of the will expressed
Generations unfolding and blooming by the hour
Accelerated arcs of change sent spiralling into the system
Their foreign remarks exchanged all saying the same thing-
We must be different, must be here, must be here by now
From this comfort under the stairs of progress,
Eye to the keyhole of the purring motherboards,
See silicon love melted into the city sky
Chemical symbols welded and wielded high,
Signs of stars in ironic limbo, waiting for their burst
The flickering fickle edges of a screen’s vision immersed
Bowing to the crowd and then bent double, triple, versed, drunk!
A cocktail of ill-conceived raps,
To be misperceived and forgotten.
We are drowned out in the glare of ourselves,
When we stretch to extend the humanity it deserves
Cupped hands politely ask for money and land
Genetic thrusts and frenetic digging in the sand.
Analysed to the nth degree,
Lose the humour and mystery that cloaks the known scale,
Till unbidden the light reveals the hidden dark,
And no more talk of a cross or an ark,
There is nothing left that can be known
And the ends of the world are insubstantial
Significance distilled, meaning tilled,
Wandering the wonders barefoot, skilled
Where is the direction that will
Leave ourselves with each other?
And to hell with the whole and its brother