She’s almost invisible now, as if spun from finest gossamer,
Haunting, somehow trapped within these walls,
Like an apparition lost in her own cold distance,
I see a sadness in her eyes that I cannot repair,
And feel a burgeoning sense of dread, fed by her despair.
The Signal
The threat is invisible, silent, and constant,
There is no escape, no running, and nowhere to hide,
The signal permeates every system, every cell,
It’s a new technological pandemic
The killer is digital and already within you.
Nobody can disconnect, and very soon,
All existence will be erased.
N0C+URN4L
The early morning rain falls like sheets of shattered glass,
Down on the street, the forming puddles reflect the dark sky,
Vehicles pass by like hissing serpents, the occupants barely awake,
Concrete building frontages shine with a watery veneer,
Dripping facades provide walkways shelter before disappearing up into the clouds,
Advertisements flicker with colourful brilliance, LED billboards illuminate laneways,
They cut through the rain and darkness, clashing with decrepit orange streetlights,
A bridge spans a freeway tunnel, and the headlights of hundreds queue to gain access,
A helicopter buzzes overhead, preparing to land at a nearby riverbank pad,
Sirens wail in the distance, the world is waking up,
Time to unplug, disconnect from my terminal and put my mind to sleep,
I power down, remove my headset, rub my tired eyes and stretch,
Now, while the chaos of the waking world ensues, I will rest,
Only to return by night, like some kind of digital vampire.
Andromeda Dreaming
She came to me through starlight,
Through immaculate dancing violet light,
I still see her eyes when I close mine,
I feel the warmth of her embrace,
Her heart is a great constellation of stars,
Her lifeforce shines across the galaxy,
Tonight, I will close my eyes and dream,
Of my beautiful Andromeda.
Cybernaughts
We are hardwired to provide maximum resolution,
Once there were eyes, now cameras are the solution,
Life means desperation for the technologically devout,
The sky outside remains dark ever since the blackout,
The landscape is rain soaked where the buildings stand tall,
Here, where we were nearly wiped out by a nuclear war,
So many missiles, unchecked AI sub routines fired those,
Using cold machine logic to destroy unknown human foes,
So, this is our world now unhappily ever after,
Where eyes keep recording and headsets transmit data,
The wealthy moved off world, and the poor were displaced,
Desperate people become cybernaughts, lost in digital space.
If I went to bed
If I went to bed tonight,
And fell into a dream,
One that I wouldn’t awake from,
I would be content.
Atari
A sadness fell upon me this evening,
A heavy wave of confusing memories,
I was laughing at a comedy with my wife,
Only 10 minutes before it hit me,
As I sat alone, I felt such a feeling of loss,
Where did it come from?
A momentary look at a photo of an Atari 2600 console,
Someone was selling it online,
It was dust-covered, scratched, and time-beaten,
The sales caption brought a tear to my eye,
It read, “old, but still in working order”,
My sadness was about aging and about my own relevance,
It hit me like a body shot to the liver with a lead pipe,
Because I too feel a little dusty, antique, and I have my scars,
For I’ve also been beaten by life quite a few times,
But I am still here, and although I am not perfect,
I am still in working order.
We are the cosmos
Illuminated by distant star fields,
Our minds may be terrestrially imprisoned,
But we are built for infinite possibilities,
We are the timeless,
Those born of stardust,
We are the cosmos.
Perfect
She lay in my arms,
A new soft, fragile human,
Sleeping, soundly and safely,
So tiny and very premature,
And completely perfect.
Avatars of our humanity
The world right now lives in unreality,
Jobs, services, people we meet,
None seems as real as they once did,
Is the matrix here and now,
Reality has been hijacked by billionaires,
We’re abused by greedy politicians,
Confused masses, manipulated by the media,
Everything feels geared towards marketing,
People are desperate to escape reality,
Right now, online life is preferred,
Where likes provide validation,
And reach signifies success,
Neither of these is a physical thing,
But online is how we live now,
Where every perversion is instantly satisfied,
It’s easy being digital, you can be anything,
You can be anyone other than yourself,
A place where we don’t feel the hurt,
The painful realities of war, poverty or famine,
Where hate is downloadable for the willing,
Just click, donate, and feel better,
A sweet constant flow of dopamine,
Our flesh is now an avatar of our humanity,
We must take the red pill and awaken,
Back into the harsh reality of the world,
Where we follow the white rabbit,
Disconnect for a while, and make reality better.
Dan Verkys 