Ghetto-Bot [Today's News Poem (Sonnet), June 3, 2010]
A film-bot took my pic. A judge-bot judged
My case. The gun-bots hunt in packs and chase
Until they need a charge. The quarry trudged—
I trudge through streets. A hostile database
Examines clips the cameras take and merge
Me down to size and place: a street of shops
Of votive candles, doughnuts... men who urge
The teens to point and click: the target drops.
A place where anonymity's the rule;
Where everyone is on the run from eyes
That never tire: a heart that keeps its cool
With liquid nitrogen—and never dies.
It's purging randomness from all its files
And herding malcontents to ghetto-isles.
“The city of San Carlos, facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit brought on by the recession and rising employee costs, is considering a money-saving measure that is all but unheard of in the Bay Area - dissolving its Police Department and outsourcing the job of law enforcement.”
– Henry K. Lee, San Francisco Chronicle, June 3, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/03/MN4M1DFVT8.DTL
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