Drones fill the air and block out the natural sky.
Drones armed with sniper rifles fly over Gaza at night
playing the sounds of crying babies to lure civilians out of hiding.
Drones surveil protest movements and give
nightmares to grandmothers in New Jersey.
Drones with facial recognition technology keep a lifeless eye on us
to make sure we are all in our proper places at all times.
Drones for kids as Christmas presents.
Free drone in this box of Lucky Charms.
Your daughter is so intelligent, maybe someday she will girlboss her way
into a job at Lockheed Martin designing military drones to help kill impoverished foreigners.
Drones hover over crooked towers flashing bright signs for
Products, Products, Products.
Drones hover over suburban houses
ruled by fathers with horrible hands.
Drones hover over armies of mechanical dogs
pouring out into the streets in the moonlight.
A murder of drones in the dead tree at sunset.
Flocks of drones migrating to the global south for winter.
The sky used to be ruled by living beings. Now it is ruled by drones.
Our birds are being replaced by machines.
Our stars are being replaced by Elon Musk satellites.
Our minds are being replaced by algorithms.
Our hearts are being replaced by social media trends.
Our world is being replaced by screens.
Our creative genius is being replaced by AI slop.
That sacred green thing within us is being paved over with microchips.
Our roots into our mother planet are dying. A
t night we pray to false old gods and false new gods
while we strangle our creator with plastic,
and then we count the passing drones to fall asleep.
Author
Caitlin Johnstone, an independent journalist based in Melbourne, Australia. Her website is here and you can follow her on Twitter @caitoz or caityjohnstone.medium.com. You can read more about her project HERE. Read her Substack blog.
