preen the image | in the videochat camera | gaze all day at it \ rub the teeth with finger | while conversing / with far-distant brethren | subsist / by self-soothing touch | license self | dole of chocolate | or iteration | of Candy Crush | mind modulates self | self-replicating machines | from the start | by nature’s design | train replacements | we train our terror | on our replacements | the cotton gin | counter to intuition | buttressed slavery | mechanization | produces ever-cresting jobs | to count among employment | job search jobs | job management jobs | job finder jobs | job creation jobs | raison d’être being work’s | pressing double-helix mandate | self- replication itself | as tasks multiply / productivity increases / jobs devoid of conceivable purpose | abound / social media’s recursive fractals | flourish / caretake the wealthy | help grow their | ever-growing footprints | agriculture | spawned this dream | of a great funneling / of many’s dreams | to the few | drip-drip / trickle-trickle / empathize / with our early selves | our trauma response | for that scrape with | an existential scrape | a slim slip | of myriad years | our brush with abyss | trauma is a resilient gene | another myriad hence | next iPhone-next release | job creation | telos is greater pleasure | pleasure in turn | hedged to fit | productivity | work & leisure | cause & effect | one self-replicating scheme | more trial-sized pleasures | to cram into productive days | where we face abyss | of spiraling boredom | else work asses off | to assuage the rich | produce more | perhaps we can dream / that dream of channeling | our wits to Mars | then to edges | of the Solar System | & lily-pad / to the nearest reaches | of our galaxy | but then what with | light’s ceiling | we’re only getting so far | the Universe too | having a retirement age | minds | may be able to utilize / infinite, end | but grasp them | well nothing doing | I pass through | a supermarket | self checkout / laser caressing | Quick Response code | on a styrofoam | cradle boarded | shingle of flesh | pay with Bitcoin | whose telos | as well as modus operandi | is to consume / ever-cresting power | already mining more energy | than Argentina | a country | aka aggregate of productivity | I hie myself into the chiaroscuro | of the concrete coppice | the looming violence | of every concrete husk | every centimeter \ our footprint | expands double | doubling down / when a natural disaster | or pandemic | or threat of self-annihilation | allows us opportunity | to rethink / we double down instead | growth is telos | employment our mandate | health | is derivative upon the market | though no single person | appears capable | any longer of grasping | that abstraction | & so back to the millstone | our very time \ bought, paid, consumed / AI leering | over the shoulder | increases quality of life experience | same time \ it threatens it \ Southern slaveholders | needed an object | of fear & loathing / for poor Whites | so they directed their attention | to the once-enslaved | creating further | useless & painful work | for both | AIs not yet people | so while our infinite resource | work | has been freed / of any need for meaning | by capitalism | jobs will continue / to increase rather than decrease / enough daylight | between daylighting / to ask | to what end | should you be inclined / to decline / the whole endeavor | tough titties | the boss once advised me | find me some land | where people are not | take your clodhopper ass | out there | raise some hay & dillweed | shoot me a telegram | when you are done \ eking it out / by the skin of your teeth
