Linda Imbler - One Poem

Circuit

The man in the machine,

or what is left of him

after sinking to his basest level.

Sewage of rumors and lies,

virulent strains of venom,

all protected

behind an anonymous firewall.

Racism on all fronts,

Sexism of all types,

Ageism for every generation.

He looks……..

She acts……..

Fill in the blanks

with hatred-laced,

vile commentary

expounded onin the crudest of terms.

Love of fellow man
suspended,
while the keyboard works overtime,
telling us who we should hate today,
and why.
Yet, we know not who is telling us so.
Secrecy rules,
websites by-lined with aliases,
truth lost in a maze of bits and bytes.
Zero and one,
the most powerful numbers on the planet.
It did not come to this overnight,
steady complacency
allowed it to blossom,
bloom into the most grotesque way
to categorize
and philosophize
thoughts and people.
There’s a great fear
for the future,
of mindless, impersonal automatons
replacing mankind’s intellect and compassion.
But now,
to our tremendous shock and grief,
we discover
they are already here,
and they already have.

Linda Imbler is the author of the published poetry collection “Big Questions, Little Sleep.”  Her work has appeared in numerous journals. Linda’s creative process and a current, complete listing of sites which have or will publish her work can be found  at lindaspoetryblog.blogspot.com. This writer, yoga practitioner, and classical guitar player lives in Wichita, Kansas.