Digital Empire! --------------- Travelling without moving Mind flying through the shadows of a doubt Illogical desires fill the neurons Firing off faster and faster As my mind.... As my mind.... Enters........ Across the Ether I'm transmitted Through countless kilometers of winking glass Around the globe I move Millions of bits per second With the ease of mere thought Music of heartless machines Pounding into my skull Encouraging my flight and exploration Into new corridors of information yet unlearned Cramping fingers guide the soul through the Matrix To a brave new world Made just for our kind This is the Homeland of Generation X A thousand other shining kin Reach out their digital digits To embrace me in the Dance of the 'Net Welcoming me Home A million million photons penetrate the retina Tunneling deep into the brain The messages of a thousand others Scanning for me The electronic kindred share themselves As never they have before in real life Virtuality giving them all the excuse they need To act on their real selves The cotton in my mouth scratches at my tongue As I feel hunger gnaw at my corpse A blink back into reality As my hand lifst the ambrosia to parched lips My skeleton chokes on a piece of bread The need for photons is greater now Than the need for physical sustenance Nuisances of biological life sated for the merest moment I jack my being back into the ether again Ruminations of late hours spent online Fade as I shift realities yet again I watch In amazement Concern Boredom Interest? Confusion As lives unfold before my digital awareness Almost real enough to touch I try to reach out to them Extending my aura outward, grasping for something Yet the phosphors in my monitor deny me complete access Loves are found and buried in this virtual place Technical revelations and secret passwords Passed like fine entrees about the channel As others laugh through their fingers at it all Something is not quite right - Shift back again Hit the eject button as I realize This is the fourth time this CD has played Already boredom has set in Eject, Replace, Punch another one in Sweet relief as new sounds pacify the ears Too much time spent here already What has happened in my absence? In the few moments I faded from the Presence? Jack back in again Bleary eyes distorting both realities now Cursing one existance for interfering With the one that matters to me With bloodshot eyes that no longer see Tendons creaking and snapping in my fingers Muscles weakening from disuse Starved corpse begging mercy Can't keep on going like this Addiction growing like the technology I crave Confusion augmenting - mixing worlds Body fading as Soul proceeds toward false Nirvana Where has the Balance gone? Where is the I that used to be? Exponential cycle growing beyond control? Spiralling up and down, in and out Binary roller coaster Thrills, chills, spills Was that just my soul That fell to the Earth from beside me? Strobe lights flashing Pulse of the new Millenium Clocked in GigaHertz That no human can possibly pray to follow We're lagging too far behind In our desire to race ahead of ourselves Information kills the mind Internet the new Boob-Tube Hear ye well, Hear ye all! Listen to the confessions of a Madman Paradises lost - Virtuality found False life now my own I am the Technical Guru Standing high above all On my virtual mountain That I built from my mind Stake my claim on a mountain of zeroes and ones Little bits of nothing and something These are all my dominion All that I own Here is my domain, child See my kingdom here below me My faithful subjects beneath My power and knowledge Armies of the mindless worshipping me Their virtual Lord We're waging a war now A battle against the reality which has forsaken us Organized into legions Of hackers, phreakers, crackers Even down to the meager fodder Logging on to AOL We will fight this world's injustices From behind plastic keyboards And glowing monitors This is our world now This is my world now Welcome! I am master here I am the curate and judge I am the slave Welcome to my reality I will show you how to be a king, too Be my subject I shall mentor thee And show you the key to your dreams Give me your soul. Together, we can transform it From the stuff of God Into a digital Everest Convert it into hex and quadwords Plus five volts and minus two-point-nine core Encode it and decrypt it Until it is yours to control Become your own god Rule a place in this virtual ether with me The new frontier - Endless vastness That can ne'er be filled Nor fill... Nor fill your binary soul. Join me here in the Nothing Join me. As I live out my creation And fade from this universe Into the world of my making Welcome to my Digital Empire! Copyright July 2, 1998 by the Immortal Soul