Unit 1000

[audiofool]

They can see me
they can hear me
they don't know me
I am unit 1000, c. 1983

they know where I shop
they know the beats that I drop
they know what's on the TV
but they don't know me

they know my faith
they know of my doubt
they know my disgust
oh, they know what it's about

they know I am not
of their gilded pedigree
they know I'm of no significance
though I beg to disagree

they know what I'm thinking
(they manufacture all my thoughts)
they know the proof I'm drinking
someday I'm sure to be caught

they programmed me to lie
they filled me with their fear
If I fail to comply
I'll simply disappear

If you know what's good for you
you will toe the line
don't let your emotions
clutter up your robot mind

dispense with talk of freedom
and of what you consider fair
follow the appointed leader
and just pretend to care.

[starfire]

Hello there! I most definitely appreciate the heck out of this piece, for a couple reasons.

Number 1: Awesome content. In a world manufactured to pander to our basic needs, vie for our attention, and insist that these countless products will make us feel better, this is what we become. Mechanical. Yet regardless of the attempt to market our everyday whims, or perhaps because of it, we are shaped into human beings with separate desires.

Number 2: The tone of resignation. In the beginning, you insist that this "machine" cannot and does not know you. You are a separate individual, but by the end, the rules are all that matter.

but they don't know me.....

follow the appointed leader
and just pretend to care.

Number 3: Thanks for switching the rhymes in your stanza. It gave it, in my mind, a mechanical feel, and yet there was a surprisingly free flow. Sort of a from robot to human thing.

Thanks so much for sharing your poetry with us!
-Sarah

[audiofool]

Thanks, Sarah. I appreciate your comments. I'm glad you liked it.

Despite the odds, the human in us survives!