When It All Comes Down to Numbers
The longer I live it seems
The more it all comes down to numbers.
I expect some day when
We're inscribed with three sixes or a bar code
Human kind will be ready
To line up on the shelf beside any other creatures
That have managed to make themselves
Extinct or at the very least have come to latent obsolescence.
The bookkeepers will have caught up
With Earthlings at long last and overwhelmed them all
With numbered labels suitable for storage
In little boxes, cardboard, magnetic or laser-etched.
We ran as fast as we could for open spaces,
Fleeing the squinty-eyed little trolls with ink-stained fingers
That followed in our train intent to make
A cipher out of anything and anyone they can ensnare.
In webs of numbers in crisp file folders
And now they've got us electrified, datafied and labeled.
What the numbers turn out to be won't matter
Not at all, just that everybody has one - sixes in threes or otherwise....
© by Tom King
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