  THE GIFT
   
   Feel behind the ear, the small hole 
   (left for women, right for men). Now 
   insert the wire until a cold
   sensation comes beneath the eye. See how
   
   twirling the wire makes you smile? 
   When it feels like sunshine on your face, 
   raise your hand. In a little while
   a friend will come to calibrate. Solace
   
   will be yours another year. Just 
   turn the wire until it feels like sun; 
   that's good. Another year of trust. 
   No fear. Loving peace for everyone.
   
   I take the wire and bend it till it breaks! 
   They can't do this! Can't you see it makes 
   us into simple blobs of happy clay? 
   Most of us can think back to a day
   when living wasn't easy. There was pain 
   and trouble in the worldbut then again, 
   at least it all was real. What they destroy 
   is not just pain, but love, and awe, and joy.
   
   One unit fails to comprehend
   this can't be done unless it's done for all. 
   His childish need for pain could end
   this heaven that we've made for you. You called
   for us in desperate need. You prayed
   that somehow we could save you from your fate. 
   An so we came in answer. But we said
   you'd have to change your nature. It's too late 
   to turn you into angels. Now
   the best that we can do is try to make
   you harmless. Don't ask how.
   Trust in us. We do it for your sake.
   
   So long as one man lives who won't submit,
   then all your words and wires won't work. That's it. 
   Right? For all your talk, you just want slaves. 
   I can't believe that no one else is brave 
   enough to break the wire and take the world 
   as it was given usa clashing whirl 
   of good and bad in nearly equal parts. 
   Not turned to harmless pap by your black arts.
   
   We will not argue. But we care
   how this experiment turns out. Let's try 
   a kind of vote. If there
   is only on in ten who'll take your side
   
   then we will go. And take along
   these wires and words you think will make you slaves. 
   Ready? Counting. Sorry. Wrong. We counted every one and found that they've
   
   decided we were right. You're wrong. 
   So you must go. Take your broken wire 
   and twisted heart. Your pagan song: 
   Your empty merely human angry fire.
   
   Done. Now you are at peace. Not slaves. 
   We ask for nothing. If you just don't pull 
   the wires, your world's forever saved. 
   Forever happy. If a little dull.

