Robot 5.0

restless stirring fingers tap in time with hot flash surges

frantically refreshing the page

like tiny manic New Year’s resolutions

keeping time like a heartbeat

when we have seven stacked emails

we delete them, hang the accomplishment like a talisman

around flushed necks, a tick mark bead

on the rosary chain of calendar days

at netflix’s anonymous we show our cut marks

and everyone blushes, clicking the pulse points for blood

each rant in our heads is 140 characters

links to pictures incessantly flash

an appropriate meme for our failure

we are armed with stances--guns, babies, gays

word mines impersonating humans

mine is better than yours better than yours

the dirt and grass outside is the color of a Zelda landscape

it almost looks real, almost looks real

each breath fills up with pixels, albums of memory

mined like ore

techno trees are fresher than air

growing forests out of plastic seeds

avoiding zombies, chasing chickens

scrolling down, we remember leaning forward

on the floor cross legged

too close to the screen like rebels

waiting for the swimming ants to form a picture

we crawled inside Pac-Man

gobbling pixel dots like candy, hungry hungry

hiding around corners for food

this flesh is lacking armor

too vulnerable, too many windows open

needs a body that beastly minds and needles cannot breach

a digital fire that needs no sleep

a fire that needs no sleep