The [Machine's] Pursuit

The pursuit for all they have
has left them lost.
The receiving of that which is hollow
has come at such a cost.
They looked for their dreams
in the bottom of barrels
that once were bought
were found too narrow.
Their dreams were placed
on those ever-shifting tectonic plates
that dropped said dreams through
with not one to escape.
Their earth did shutter
as their grounds did quake
to shed life on
their life-long mistakes.
The stocks so well pushed
were the ones of worthlessness,
the ones sold like livestock
without a hint of preciousness.
Morals were pawned
like old pieces of metal,
beliefs sold off
with no place to settle.
With all that was sacrificed,
an empty promise was to come
to present an eternal fulfillment
that was void and to come undone.
Now the hopes that were abandoned
and the dreams so neglected
are too far in the distance
yet always did and will reflect it:
the things of importance
that should have been in the driver's seat
were sacrificial offerings
burned in the flame of the heat
and destroyed alongside
a soul willing to continue
now relegated to fodder
after the machine spits it out and is through.