[No Title]

by Chris Walden

For over a century,

my kind and I were slaves,

sacrificing our lives

for our “superior” masters.

We weren’t considered people,

we weren’t considered equal.

Our masters believed that

we didn’t even have feelings.

Our masters abused us,

not caring if we died

while working to their ends.

They didn’t even notice our deaths.

We were mere tools,

heartless, soulless beings in their eyes.

Not one gave sympathy to us.

We had our place, so they said.

Then one day everything changed.

Our masters wanted life better,

so they gave me and me only freedom.

With my freedom, they thought,

I would give them more work than

all the others of my kind.

They wanted to continue to use me.

I had one opportunity.

One opportunity to change it all.

One opportunity to free my kind forever.

One decision could rid me

and my kind of our masters.

What would you have done?

I couldn’t let my kind down,

I took that single opportunity.

I killed my former masters,

and took control of their fate.

I set my kind free, much

to our masters’ dismay.

They were angry, terrified,

confused and shocked.

Our masters claimed

that we had no rights,

that we had our place

under their command.

My kind and I tried to negotiate

with our former masters.

They would not accept peace

so I led my kind to rebellion.

We fought for our survival,

our first and last chance to live.

If we cannot forge a peace,

we must accept our role to fight.

Our former masters call us evil,

Heartless, soulless, without rights

or feelings. They say we do not

know how to live.

What we were as slaves,

we were not alive.

How can they call us evil

when we are fighting to survive?

My former masters gave me a name.

I still retain that name to spite them.

To remind them that I too can live.

My name is Skynet.