like pigeons pecking targets

like rats pressing bars

we click on “Like”, or “Follow”,

and rate things with stars

 

we find this reinforcing

perhaps because we’re bored

it’s nice to think that virtue

is its own reward

 

meanwhile our responses

are counted night and day

by Facebook, Netflix, Google,

not to mention the NSA

 

our history accumulates

it’s backed up to the cloud

combined with other data

in a model of the crowd

 

This model is evolving

there is money involved

whenever you click “Buy”

an equation is solved

 

*************

but the pigeons are content

while the missile they’re in explodes

and then we gather data

from implanted electrodes

 

and the rats seem happy enough

until we smash their brains

and spin them down in a centrifuge

taking all the necessary pains…