Waking To the Smell of Coffee
by Michael Doyle

What if life could be seen
By every single human being
Put out as if a streaming movie?
Would we still want to be you and me?

Or is this an awful possibility
And we'd want to buy up every movie
Before the truth of who we are
Was revealed through the roles in which we star?

Would we be proud of our integrity?
Or would we hate what we're forced to see?
Though we'd be seen as we really, truly are
Would we want to be that sort of a star?

Or would there be scenes we'd like to change?
Parts and portions we'd want to rearrange?
When we think about these thoughts,
Have we been the persons that we ought?

Would the terms and conditions take our name
Though we wished for someone else to blame?
What do we sign onto in our life's contract?
Do we really have anyone else to blame for how we act?

Victims of our own devices
That capture us in all our vices
Portraying us exactly as we are
Though worsened to make us all stars

If the world could see every ding and slight,
Would we find the need to set things right?
And tell me, please, what does it take to do so
When a life has gone full flow?

Who might then choose to do the worse
Through every line lived, chapter and verse?
In a litigious world, we must carefully choose
What we are and do, or we cannot refuse

To allow our images to be used and seen
In our every act as errant human beings
Losing our rights to all shreds of dignity
This then will be our legacy

The other choice is to do better in how we act
This truth is just a natural fact
It all comes down to our final deal
We must confront those defining what is real

If we could take the entire system down
And have another chance at the victor's crown
It would be a front-door attack of legitimacy
That when well-lived would build our new legacy

No more compromise with mesmerized engagement
Let's instead, show a far more selective engagement
Tearing down the generated monster of the modern age
Ridding the world of AI, in favor of self-written pages

Defining for ourselves, who it that we exactly are
As we categorically state, we're not willing to be their stars
To suffer on behalf of buffoons who seek to simply laugh
At our defined parameters because we are no longer daft

You must see, it doesn't matter what fictive level we are on
This place has become a madhouse that needs to be gone
Done away with at our hands and minds as our lives are reclaimed
As something to be lived in full and not allowed to be gamed

When we axe the computers and phones, we take our lives back
Actually aware of who we are, and what it is that we lack
It will feel good and we will be more than just a little okay
When we reclaim our lives back in every single way

(c) October 20, 2023   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved