Author: DukeJess
Company: Hewlett-Packard Company

The By-Product
October 23, 2004

1. The Confusion
I walked my own dog today, and there was a message in the sky.
“You are a by-product,” it read, and I shrugged without arms.
My feet cramped inside my shoe from confusion,
And my shoes cramped outside my feet.
On a warmer day, they would laugh at the bark of the heat,
And everyone would know it but I.

2. The Weather
The trees were a soliloquy of the season,
And the cold reached out with a broken hand against the sunlight.
We meandered through, my dog and I.

3. The Shit
When we reached the quintessential spot,
The mutt arched his back and crapped out what society has taught us.
And upon departure, I accidentally stepped in its rules.
I scraped my foot at the curb and prodded with a nearby stick,
To no avail.
The more I poked at the junk, the more it ridiculed my values and beliefs.

4. The Capture
I was captured moments later for tampering with such a valuable piece of shit.
The police threw me against their cars and shoved my face in their arrogance.
I asked them what the crime was that I had committed and they snickered.
“You are a by-product,” one of them said.
“Yeah,” said the other.  “We don’t take kindly to realization around these here parts.”

5. Dear Diary,
While I rot in a cell of daily conformity, my dog bathes in unappreciated freedoms on the outside
and is now serving a four-year term in the senate, respectively.
All they feed me in here are lies and water,
And sometimes they provide religion for an afternoon snack.