You Win Some You Lose Most

Some you win and some you lose,
Ole father time will tell you true,
He’ll tap you on the shoulder,
With your judgement for review.

From twenty seven brave attempts,
You might but once prevail,
The other tewthy six defeats?
Your destiny to fail.

One e-mail bearing romance,
And then ninety eight with spam,
Cyberspace vexatious,
With ten kilos worth a gram.

You try to win but Google’s there,
With knowledge sprouted debonair,
A slick robotic genius,
A brilliant brain beyond compare.

To whom do I speak presently?
A robot, or my mother?
A highly erudite machine?
Or is that you, my brother?

I’m talking into cyber space—
Like pissing in the wind,
My efforts to connect are doomed,
My human heart chagrined.

I want to know this android!
Making pirouettes in learning,
The scholar in me lit aflame;
For comradeship sore yearning!

But ninety eight percent,
Of what I see is also trash,
Spam and fraud and prurience,
Or ploys to steal my cash.

These bots will take my savings,
Or indeed my very teeth,
Deception overwhelming sly,
With malware underneath.

You win sometimes but also drown,
In cyberspace’s sprawling town,
With robots, relatives and friends,
Parading in a cyber-gown.

The judgement set upon us,
Is that we’re reduced to blips,
Living lives in cyber hives,
And electronic chips.

You cannot really win, I say,
Since cyberspace is binary,
I bid you friend, without delay—
Take to the nearest winery!

ADL