Just Software

Just Software

Some get born to die quick
My druggy mother soon left
Father so bereft
Struck me with a stick

A closet my sky
Damp wood my bed
Food: paint with lead
Until Dad breezed by

My baby skin soft
Money in that
Drugs, guns, in the slat
Dad bought a loft

A few clients wanted more
When the police came
Dad claimed I’d no name
Didn’t speak till I was four

On face and butt, scars
The first fosters very dear
Told me not to fear
Brought me to their bars

Met Dad next at sixteen
Almost finished school
Learning to look cool
Too pissed to ask where he’d been

At college worked in pawn
The girls so sweet to kiss
Loved them all, made lists
Shanked Dad and did not mourn

Learned the trade, bought the store
Drug mule runs got me cash
Addicts always want their hash
Stolen goods your profits’ core

I was happy to expand
Jewels, watches, gold
Money so hot I felt cold
For I had reached the golden land

Love near cost my life
A courtesan cranked with spice
Grabbed my heart and took a slice
Who am I for child and wife?

What’s money without power
Politics liked my story
Orphan, cripple – bound for glory
No longer will I cower

It’s fun to make the law
Fast wealth makes a lord
People scheme for your accord
Grasp for help though you’re their whore

Congress, Senate, there’s no stop
On escalators I still know how to fall
Cajole, crawl, make that call
Climb the rubble to pierce the top

All stopped when I saw the sign

For now they showed me what I was
No person, no man, just
A pox of pixels lesser than dust
Batched programming, electronic fuzz

I was/am nothing, but that’s everything
Now I could pray to my real god
Who makes a fake universe for any clod
Of you my maker, of thee I sing

Please program a planet blue and serene
Filled with life
Free and equal without strife
More than this world though just a dream
You owe me that dream