My anti-hero died today.
Beyond the grave, he sent the news—
The ghost of global communication,
Wireless wanderer of the mobile wire
Has now possessed us all forever
With a handheld brand immortality.
The black, plastic soul of a brave new universe,
Technocratic alternative traversed for progress
And death cannot digress
From the conversation of
i
You and i that is,
Because i see me in you,
Too overly free and too,
Uncompromisingly arrogant
About doing it “my way”
Or the i way
Life lived forthright with iSight
In that Randian vein:
Truth and Justice for all
After all the prophets are paid.
But PC is for Proletariat Control
The future brought to you sooner
By the consumer consumer,
The baby-boomer Anti-Prole,
The dropout genius, eating
Newton’s fruit, forbidden—
the bite heard ‘round the world.
Technological Renaissance flag unfurled.
Arts and education accelerated.
Jobs created in markets and media,
The cross-pollination of nations
With fingertips at our music bliss
A multimedia world of change
The universal-engage movement.
And a quiet uprising of dropout dorks is dreaming
Beyond the bounds of the present and possible
Recalling the gospel of Steve, exhorting the youth:
“Stay hungry. Stay foolish,”
Fuelish words, or so it seems.
To talk of dreams and failure
So coolishly,
As if we could all get fired up
And climb the corporate ladder,
relentless vision in tow,
A world molded in our own image:
An apple with a scar
In the spot where we bit it.