(The Apprentice)

Your movements are tagged and tracked to synch
with the satellite precision of atomic clocks,
or a UPS driver tethered to her GPS link,
step back in the warehouse to balance a box
the Amazon sensors that measure your pace
that archives what transpires in the workplace
records those surplus movements not required,
take 3 steps back,… your fired

He monitors every cubicle listens in behind the door
rifles through each file and drawer
to detect any flaw or latent sin,
converts them into algorithms,
the Big Data platform of the boss with thin skin
is programmed to root out all opposition,
though your attitude is heavily weighted,
either brownnose the boss or,… your terminated

And now we all work for the boss with thin skin
under his gaze twenty four/seven days a week,
the internet of things reports straight to him,
he knows when you get up to take a leak,
he can turn on your smart phone from afar
even stake out your bedroom on a whim
or grab your pussy cause he’s a star,
yes, he’s hardcore, refuse him,… your out the door

You know the NSA works for him too
and Obama never disavowed their secret power,
now they spy on everything we do
from up on Trump’s panoptic tower,
our dividual iterations are routed
on beam splitters through a fiber optic prism
the micro/subjects of digital fascism
are scanned by the chief then modulated

And if you resist the orange man’s inquisition
against the state you have conspired
now your out the door, … fucking fired
and when your gone you probably wont come back
cause Gitmo’s staying open for its new mission;
the Alt-Right gonna put your head in a sack,
Ted Nugent’s putting out a live recording
while Giuliani does the waterboarding

 

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Richard Carlson is an independent scholar, writer, musician, who contemplates technology, culture, climate change, jazz through eclectic media and guerilla theory. He is the founder and chief operating officer of Pacific Weather Inc. His latest publication is “Nietzsche’s Snowden” in Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures from Springer Press (2016) He lives in the Dungeness Valley of Washington state.