Within the Analects of some genius,

Beneath elegant metaphor, critical thought,

Evidence and proofs; detect a scream

From the unconscious simpleton.

There was once a time worse than this,

When all light sucked into a flash was

Aborted and subverted to greyscale,

A quiet portrait of a neurotic.

Beyond his machine brain was the

Heavy denial and silence of his friends –

That silly brute that demands justice

Whimpering within clenched jaws.

It is not our geniuses or mathematicians

Our artificial intelligence or otherwise

That can demand any decency – but

Within each is that unrelenting savant

Butchering Enigmas and sorting meat parts

Encoding futures and digging wells 

Loading guns and devouring apples -- 

We have failed ourselves.

We have failed the fragile intellect

The thin needle upon which Atlas balances

We have failed the aimless dolt

Residing in the space across each rib.

Those entrenched in florid thought

Recalculating our raptures

Are too entrenched in the gouging fingers

Of their mindless superiors.

When the idiot within us demands

That we derive no joy from suffering,

The stone-faced foreheads of our elect

Will assure no such derailment.

Were I there, I would have

I would have held the poor man’s hand

I would have run fingers through his plastered hair

I would have thanked, congratulated, praised

I would have appreciated and embraced

I would have stood, the defiant reins

I would have screamed the song of the idiots:

We demand indifference.