Twenty-Twenty, A Poem

The winds of change begin to blow, slowly at first, but then,

Working up the clouds into a roiling mass. Churning up 

Even the blue sky into a gyre that gathers speed, alas!

Not even seen by those that pass below, unsuspecting, 

That the times are changing. A virus stops the world in its tracks.

Yet they continue their games to play, tasks to do and ratings to win.

The blast that flattens a skyline leaving untold suffering,

While nations stage economic wars and wars with bombs,

Even the greatest dams cannot the floods stop!

Not all but few do see the spinning circle that swallows all.

The vain do boast of science so strong,

Yet before a tiny germ do hang their heads with shame.

The schools shut down, students struggle, focus on screens,

While teachers tackle technology and ignore the lesson.

Even the best can create merely a virtual world out of a film!

Not even history did see an exodus, so long, of migrant workers 

Trudging a thousand miles with kith and kin to be.

Yet the powers that be, focus wars with others not caring about the sick.

The Factory barely ticks, the jobless wanders, another one dies

While they prepare to unleash the dogs of war. Recession depression 

Even inflation, lead to wars. Have they forgotten lessons of the great war?

Now he needs to unlearn, learn, upskill and re-skill all from scratch,

The teachings of grandfathers of no more use. A.I. Algorithms rule the day

Yet as we continue to be drawn into an unforgiving quagmire of data.

The world teeters on the brink of change, a chasm that will 

Whittle away all that makes us human. For we need to adapt

Ever so fast to new things, competing with machines that

Nip ahead evolving and changing so fast, shedding obsolescence 

That too without a conscience. Soon like them will we have

Yet to forego, memories and relations just to live.

The man holds his head in his hands, how long, how long

Will he have to start anew? At an age when they thought

Even to retire. He started with garments to suffer loss

Next went  to electronics, suffered loss, imported stuff

Then suffered loss, a victim of market forces, intent to destroy.

Yet, now he needs to go to a counsellor to tell him what to start.

The chaos sucks all into a gyre, that spins faster and faster.

Whole worlds whirl, whirlpools spin faster and faster and lives flash by

Even as those that pause to watch grow dizzy by what they see.

Now, this is the new world order, where AI is a new religion,

That has algorithms as its acolytes - each one of us is a mere

Yoked data point, an ingredient to be whipped, into a  soup.

The winds of change have arrived, at last, they bring 

With them, confusion, chaos and perplexity, 

Even as children, teachers, businessmen, doctors and

Nurses stare bewildered, at plastic worlds on plastic screens,

That siphon  them into a virtual soup feeding hungry maws of

Yet invisible machines that crunch data into a mish-mash.

The new world order teeters on unstable heels,

Which threaten to topple all into one dusty heap.

Eliot would have recognised the wasteland that we're getting into

Not even the gods of Greece and Rome can find a way out,

They're replaced by a greater one that eats data and spawns algorithms.

You all are nothing but digital data to be hacked and secured!

There is something even worse coming, an entity that feeds

When we sleep, a succubus, on the  human spirit,

Even Einstein in his wildest dreams wouldn't have thought that,

Not, even science at its best could be stopped from turning into  a competitor,

That too of its maker that would turn him into a beggar and a jobless man.

You all know how businesses failed as data predictions swayed choice.

There is, something weird about planes falling, ports exploding

Waters roiling, oil spills spreading and forest fires spreading.

Even countries turn enemies eye-balling  each other hatred 

Nurtured by desire and gain, of other's lands and resources.

Times have changed, People drift apart, humanity, forsaken.

Years squeeze into minutes, memories compressed into bytes.

Terrabytes squeeze in Gigabytes, human limits explode,
Who can squeeze the brain into a pinhead! Moore's law
Now fails, and human beings are hacked! Those people
That ruled the world now mere slaves to machines a few
Years ago they created, human minds fuel and drive machines!