Surveillance Surfeit

It is, all in all, a species of spies,
Imagining even imagined gods
And angels like to watch and not be seen,

Building even machines that love to spy,
Systems that love to spy, empires that spy
As children spy from behind closet doors,

Not for what they learn, but to feel the thrill
Of spying, watching without being watched,
Knowing while still unknown, they don’t know why.

Surveilling is a human obsession.
Being surveilled is a human horror.
It’s time everyone watched camera feeds

Of everyone watching camera feeds
Until everyone starved to death feeding.