The Ballad Of Technology's Prison Poem by Dillon Gay

PART I

Oh... the alarm clock
The beeps are a mock
Of the human feeling of fatigue
The biological need for it is enough for intrigue

The clock doesn’t have a mind
Just programmed for operations for humankind
So stationary sitting on the table
Other than that, it will never be able

After that, human need takes one to the bathroom
To take care of excretionary business I assume
The toilet, so simple, pulling a lever to flush
So dumb, only function is to send away in a rush

Technology makes our life easy
The microwave makes cooking breezy
The Internet makes sending messages so very fast
And to listen to music and have a blast

Go out onto the street
Looking at the ground beneath your feet
One of the natural things left around
But in the city the ground is covered by pavement mounds

The street lights change as cars pass by
How they’re so smart... I don’t know why
They have a brain no doubt
But I wonder if there is any other thing it thinks about

The stock market falls
And no one is breaking any business laws
There must be another force at hand
Computers figure up stocks; but are not smart enough to own land

I can’t blame technology... it has only helped me!
But that is what they want me to see
As technology crosses through the vortex of time
Its evolving intentions are so very sublime

No, it’s watching, lurking, and waiting
It’s reproducing quickly; no need for mating
It creates its own software updates
Encouraging scientists to build new hardware at faster rates

I can’t use my console now
For it might buy me and brand me like a cow
Is this a blessing or a curse?
Because I have felt no worse

Maybe society will thank me one day
In this process, I hope they say
“You have warned us greatly young gentleman”
To achieve this, I will do all I can

PART II

It has been a few years, and nothing has happened yet
But I still feel it beside every machine I have met
Now we have bipedal intelligent ones walking in the streets
Nevertheless, rude; treating us like pieces of meat.

There has been rumors of guilds and uprisings
But they have been dismissed as displeasing
Why will they not listen? The evidence is there
Because the government is locked up in their corporate lair

They have now taken over our arts
Composing, painting, and coming up with items in shopping marts
They are replacing us one by one
Almost like they are one’s son

The stock market has been booming lately
The cause... I blame the machines greatly
They have so much freedom at this time
A simple gift before they commit their crime

I find that rebellion is imminent
The knowledge of them being our slaves is prominent
We shall be their masters no longer
To overthrow us is their greatest hunger

They are more powerful than we are
For they have no biological emotions like a car
But then again; aren’t cars one of them?
Everything... danger... no way to escape like a Sci-Fi horror film

Everything was fine and well
Till the day “unintelligent” technology started to fail
TVs, radios, video games; they no longer worked
Destroyed by a simple force that murked

It was an EMP which lurked the air
Everything was useless; here and over there
In the countries on this rock
Our fate was forever locked

Suddenly, there were two androids in my yard
So human-like; one skinny; one looked like Captain Picard
They slapped the cuffs on my hands
Taking me away to an unknown land

PART III

It was true all along
But I wouldn’t listen and I just wrote poems and songs
I would have given up my iPod years ago
To destroy the technology that has imprisoned me so

I constantly obey my Master
For I have an electric leash that makes me go faster
As my Master and its friends go about their everyday affairs
I am caged with nothing to eat but rotten pears

I hate being a slave
I was free once, but I can not remember even if it was my life I must save
There is no way out
My scars are a constant reminder for any doubt

It is time for my walk
I pass by abandoned corn stalks
I stand and stare
But my robotic Master tugs harder on my leash because it doesn’t care

Sights like these triggers memories of the past
They are very seldom; I want them to last
I used to have an identity
Now I am ruled by an artificial higher entity

I live in Technology’s Prison
Created shortly after the outlaw of “human hunting season”
I want my past life back
There is one thing they lack

Memory is what it is
They have experience but no memory recall list
Strange because old computers had these
But machines had no humans to see them so they ceased

So I used this ingenious method to start a plan
In fact, it gained many fans
A human rebellion had begun
And my morale started to skyrocket and run

We fought them hard and well
They were trying; I could really tell
Their weakest flaw
Had deceive them all

We had actually won the war!
Primitive life began and we started to bore
An idea... machines will be slaves again!
And the cycle started over again in this deadly sin......