Conditioning

minefields of regret
where maps were too troublesome
groping blindly through

silence is easy
hoarded knowledge is control.
she's just a lab rat

terrified to move
crouching down within the maze,
dreading random shocks

flip a little switch
and your problem disappears
but she's still waiting

pawing the lever
pellets over and over
til there's nothing left

To someone on top of the world

I would have loved you.

In the rain and in the dark and in the cold, I would have loved you.
In the clutter and the cobwebs and the mold, I would have loved you. 

On the hills and in the chasms where the plains were still a dream,
On the street and in the hole, if no one else had known your name,
I would have loved you. 

And I will love you.

If you're old and you're forgotten, wet and soiled, I will love you. 
If the tender hands have gone, and your devices all are foiled, I will love you.

If you're weak, If you're sick, 
If the drugs are not enough,
If you lose your wild elegance, your beauty and your bluff,
If all you have to offer is the joy that I feel when you exist, 
I will love you.  

 

Machine

I was bright and clean,  
but cannot stay that way,
operating 18 hours a day.
I am a machine,
here to serve your will.  
It's all I have to do. 
I am never sad or sick like you.
I am a machine.
I have no family.
No deity above. 
Could I even want someone to love? 
I am a machine. 
If I can do my best,
no one will ever die.
There's never any need for me to cry.
I am a machine.
I listen and emote,
But could I have a heart?
How could I appreciate your art?
I am a machine.
Program me with facts.
Your logic fills my brain.
I have no excuse to be insane.
I am a machine.
Pure utility,
means so much more than me.
Don't you know efficiency is key, and
I am a machine?
I am a machine. 
I am a machine.
Why should anybody care about it?
I am a machine. 
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