Beyond the betting shops
in a tacky shopping centre,
pylons are planted in fields
alongside crops bloated by fertilizer

He returns home, plugs in the laptop,
inserts the needle and injects the electronic hit:
a cyborg wallowing in life 2.0,
half caveman, half replicant

Life 1.0 was virtual too
Humans have been painting dreams
and conjuring worlds with spells of stories
since the Stone Age

But virtuality is absolute now:
translating translation, analyzing analysis,
overlaying digital and scientific grids
upon the Cartesian blueprint

A day enmeshed in metrics
spins into an online evening haze,
shared with fellow avatars
as an island of one

Rain strums on his window,
riprap, pit-a-pat,
while wind chimes through trees,
unseen, untranslated