It tightens bolts and loosens screws
Ratchet, hum and buzz and whirr
Synthetic hands make shuddering clicks
And rattle keyboards, typing a blurr
The algorithm’s magic mix
To Franken-author untrue news.
The internet sites uploaded the lies
React and vote and like and share
Alternative facts spread through our minds,
And poison a populace unaware
But to this crime, our eyes are blind:
Outrage outpaces our surprise
The time we could have stopped it, went.
This high-tech, low-brow, magic spell
That even now is tighter-tuned
To keep our focus and to tell
The algorithm’s magic runes
To Franken-facture our consent
This was a poem I wrote for the podcast 100 words of Outstanding Beauty, which you can find here. Thanks to Tom McNally for the prompt and Alex Lynch for the editorial advice!
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