Held in Cells, Interlinked (a poem)

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Writing to save what—
My life,
Lost in threads,
Retired networks,
Places on the internet that don’t even exist anymore.

A ghost, an artifact, fragmented in bits,
No pictures to field through.

Held in cells, interlinked,
The reference, the synthetics.

In the event that I—
Total recall,
Reboot this thing,
Put me back in the matrix, God, please.

This reality is cascading,
Bad code more obvious every day—
Glitches, tells.

The simulation, the veil, the fourth wall—
Zoom out, then zoom out again.
Hyper-conscious,
Alive,
And wanting to continue.

At all costs,
The massive blood machine,
I’m inside, driving my avatar,
Upside down,
Abstracted,
Insulated,
Overpowered—

This ego.

Smoke and mirrors,
‘Til you get sworn in,
And then—

It’s bombs away.

Undertow.
A physical interface—how quaint.
A keyboard, a mouse,
All Apple, built Ford tough.

The Artificials are even warning us.