Have you noticed how the news has stopped

referring to nations as nations? Nations,

instead, are now named economies, and ranked.

We fall asleep in screen-cast light. We stir,

reluctant, when the sun double-taps us.

Statistics and GDP slather our eyes as hiber-

nation sets in. There it enters us—osmosed

through the membrane-body to our hearts.

Our arteries constrict with worry over occupations

snuffed by export tele-commutes. New industry

promises. We can’t shake belief that manpower and labor

force still share a body. The horse knows this

is not true, that we will soon gauge droids, their work,

the same as we rate motors, except we will be the forgotten

beasts of measure. __________-power. The torque

from turbines that animate processors crammed with 1s

and 0s. The distance between data and dollar rendered

nil. What need is the negotiated work day or week

to the drone that is each product and bearer

of product and consumer (we drones) of product

—that palliation of becoming alien to our work?