The Automatic Earth

Rigid dichotomous digitality
Cleaves the curves of
A sensual universe

Pixilated pixels stir madness
Spindling, folding, mutilating
Suggestable subjectivity

A promise of riches untold,
Virtually certain and glowing
Dissolves in a cloud of illusion

Unmasks a bright monster
Commanding steel and fire
Holding chains no one sees

Pain neither virtual nor glamorous
Goads a world of workers at gunpoint
Fashioning poisons to package our dreams

Burnt to the bottom of the cauldron of change
Those dark crowded people we'd rather forget
Through false debts and honor they owe us their lives

The southern cross bears a bloody sacrifice
Lucifer shudders beneath bright hammer blows
A hemisphere toils under a fierce sun's watch

Death stalks back alleys, a dirty little secret
A lily white lie, all shiny and pure
Technological Shangri La rises over slums

The best of us sit hypnotized
Passion diverted down pale gleaming wires
Where is the animal that still sees the cage?

Victorian ornament hides the true thrust
The fathers know best and hand out bright toys
Cataloging people like bugs stuck on pins

Marvelous mellifluous maladaptation
Twisted tongues speak spins, doctoring truth
Soothing oppression slides down the throat

Please ignore the men behind the curtain
Our emerald city is mighty and green
Your world of illusion is safe and secure

Bought at the price of laying waste elsewhere
Guarded by superweapons beyond your command
Against the dessicated hordes pressed to the fence

Don't let hungry ghosts' eyes trouble your sleep
A pallid moon glares on untamable oceans
As long denied waves lap sandcastles' feet