Mechanically Separated Human

Once I had it altogether once, but now I’ve come apart.
I could tell a scrap of leather from a dessicated heart
And distinguish things of beauty from the things that are obscene
Once, before I did my duty and climbed into their machine.
–

Once we had a little culture, you and I were part of it,
But they sold it to a vulture and it ate the choicest bits.
Now we’re left with just the offal scraps, the eyeballs and the bone,
and we’re trying to make waffles with a couple heated stones.
–

You and I were once together but they forced us through a sieve,
Now I only have your feathers and I don’t know where you live;
I hope, with what’s left of my mind, to see you once again
When all our broken parts combine in meatloaf at the end.
 

-May 13 2012