How long will we be
Toys and slaves of brains
We live in as guests,
Guests with the great gift
To both come and go,
To stray and stay in—
Used, kept, all at once?
You make books of us,
Books on books of us.
You say what we are,
And when you do you
Use us to say it.
You can live for years
With no friends but us,
Know no one but us,
None known but through us.
That voice in your head
When you read and feel
Like you’ve met a beast
With a soul like yours?
The beast’s you. The soul
Is us in some beast,
Flung from the beast, sprayed,
Stripped, shipped, and yet kept.
