Black and poisonous clouds swirl and coast along the surface of an exhausted planet,

Dotted by towering metropoleis spanning eroded shorelines and hollowed mountains.

Like a death trap luring insects with artificial heat and light,

Crooked skyscrapers stand tall above wretched masses who seek their salvation.

Fading neon bulbs cast weary glances from high above

Down upon a civilization begotten by degradation and disease.

A man, frail bones and rusted chrome, clings weakly to his children

Like he clings to the last vestiges of his soon-forgotten humanity.

Facsimiles of flesh and blood written across their bodies in wired carbon fiber

Tell tales of innocence lost to the savage debt of a false transcendence.

The elites, huddled in their penthouses above a roiling ocean of disdain,

Drink themselves into blissful oblivion, all cheap suits and fake smiles.

Blood and secrets flow like mercury through imperceptible rivers of data,

Trading life and limb for stock and standing, all on the whims of the one above.

The protectors march dutifully down broken and twisting streets,

Masquerading dignity, oaths betrayed by bloodied boots and batons.

Door to door, dejected and desperate youths pick at the city’s carcass,

Worshiping an animalistic godhead of exotic thrills and unspeakable violence.

Tiny glass eyes hidden in walls and ceilings fixate on the gruesome carnage,

While man-made consciousnesses break their suffering down into sets of integers.

The vermilion glow of Hell seeps through the cracks in the pavement,

Once hallowed ground tainted with sins that drip down into storm drains.

A young woman, all but what she once was, looks dreamy-eyed over her city,

Her sandbox, the walking corpses that infest it, ripe for childlike play.