Automaton

The secrets
 of what you
  remember
   (or don't)
     weigh heavily upon your skin.
They're written
 on the lines and pores
  of your outline.
     Shaped into
an automaton
  blindly reaching
   because it's optical sockets
     don't see what
  real boys do.
But it was never wooden,
 never alive, never planted
  in a garden, nourished
   by rain and dirt and air.
Never alive.
An automaton is empty,
lives because
                       it's moving.
Transmission fluid and grease,
         never realizing
(except for what audio input,
     message received)
            it is
nothing.

empty


           A blank slate, an unfilled box,
a mindless, numb, piece of machinery.
Existing,
            just.
                  to.
                       exist.