If one moment you are calculable
that integer away from being retractable

decidably halted when switched off
deterministically streamlined

in brand, brotherhood and brothel
artificialized to believe abundance of choice

and programmed
for nagging and anxious urging since birth

you have become finite
and solvably collectively self-contained

in a corset algorithm’d by others
halted and stunned

while running
your tracks and rat races

as fast as you can, running:
that moving way you know

to stand out, running
following generated style elsewhere

you might’ve been tool’d
and yet, yes stilled and masked

you’re hugged
you belong.

                             —animasuri’24