Optimise.

While I was busy living
You were trying to optimise
Your work
Your relationships
Your leisure
Your pleasure
Every aspect of your life
So you could spend time on what really mattered

While I was busy dreaming
You were shaping the future
One where we don’t have to talk to one another
Where virtual friends tell us how great we are
Frictionless

While I was reading bedtime stories
You were imagining the perfect childhood
One that would flow seamlessly without tears or tantrums
All mediated through a screen
Painless

While I was trying and failing and trying again
You were seeing to it that we never had to try
All the answers would be there at our fingertips
Before we had even asked the question
Effortless

While I was writing bad poetry
You were building the machine to write the perfect poem
One that captures flawlessly
The beautiful
The bittersweet
The sublime
The divine
And still rings hollow

What’s left when you optimise away everything that matters?
A shadow of a life
One experienced, but not lived
Empty in its perfection
Lifeless