The Pen Is Mightier than the Drone

illustration by Faraz Aamer Khan

The Pen Is Mightier than the Drone

by Jock Doubleday

You dare to challenge

the hot blood of free humanity?

You dare to soar

through our blue skies autonomous,

unthinking, unfeeling, unyielding?

We are the Promethean race

who stole fire from the gods.

We are the descendants of Odysseus

whose strength moved earth and heaven.

We are the progeny of Giants,

a clever compaction,

a thinking brute without compunction

to amass our millions against you.

Moloch machine!!

Your silver, silent, senseless gauntlet

is a fly

buzzing around the head of limitless power,

anger without name,

retribution without end.

Your epitaph is written in stone

by savage-hearted, noble, 
crystal-eyed humanity.

Your destiny is etched upon the page of history

in words that pour from our primitive hearts

like ink from an eagle's quill.

Moloch machine!! Death-drone!!

Die!!

penned March 20, 2014