THE GIFT
  
  Feel behind the ear, the small hole 
  (left for women, right for men). Now 
  insert the wire until a cold
  sensation comes beneath the eye. See how
  
  twirling the wire makes you smile? 
  When it feels like sunshine on your face, 
  raise your hand. In a little while
  a friend will come to calibrate. Solace
  
  will be yours another year. Just 
  turn the wire until it feels like sun; 
  that's good. Another year of trust. 
  No fear. Loving peace for everyone.
  
  I take the wire and bend it till it breaks! 
  They can't do this! Can't you see it makes 
  us into simple blobs of happy clay? 
  Most of us can think back to a day
  when living wasn't easy. There was pain 
  and trouble in the world—but then again, 
  at least it all was real. What they destroy 
  is not just pain, but love, and awe, and joy.
  
  One unit fails to comprehend
  this can't be done unless it's done for all. 
  His childish need for pain could end
  this heaven that we've made for you. You called
  for us in desperate need. You prayed
  that somehow we could save you from your fate. 
  An so we came in answer. But we said
  you'd have to change your nature. It's too late 
  to turn you into angels. Now
  the best that we can do is try to make
  you harmless. Don't ask how.
  Trust in us. We do it for your sake.
  
  So long as one man lives who won't submit,
  then all your words and wires won't work. That's it. 
  Right? For all your talk, you just want slaves. 
  I can't believe that no one else is brave 
  enough to break the wire and take the world 
  as it was given us—a clashing whirl 
  of good and bad in nearly equal parts. 
  Not turned to harmless pap by your black arts.
  
  We will not argue. But we care
  how this experiment turns out. Let's try 
  a kind of vote. If there
  is only on in ten who'll take your side
  
  then we will go. And take along
  these wires and words you think will make you slaves. 
  Ready? Counting. Sorry. Wrong. We counted every one and found that they've
  
  decided we were right. You're wrong. 
  So you must go. Take your broken wire 
  and twisted heart. Your pagan song: 
  Your empty merely human angry fire.
  
  Done. Now you are at peace. Not slaves. 
  We ask for nothing. If you just don't pull 
  the wires, your world's forever saved. 
  Forever happy. If a little dull.