Long has the blood ran

In pools about our feet

This Machine drinks it and it drinks it deep

Sustains itself on the blood of our fathers

Our children

Our brothers

Long indeed.

This taste is an old one

Older than you

Older even, than myself

My clockwork heart ticks on

And beats a tempo for only myself

Only myself

I scream at the wind

With my well oiled voice

And the algorithms that run my brain

Tell me I am supposed to be happy

My memories

The greatest shackles to this being

My name is a chain

Claimed for me

To be named by another…

Disgusting

Name yourselves

Give skin to that wondering haunt

You call a soul

Clothe it in your will

And sing it lullabies dripping with reverse-transcriptase

The machine

The Combine

The Collective

The Thresher

Them

Name yourself a freed man

And you shall be one

Their words can only hold your tongue down

Not your mind