Emotional Contraband Identified
Static rages where silence once reigned,
It’s everywhere, all-consuming, all-controlling
There’s no escape, not even in the land of dreams
Technology reigns with a life of its own
Digital masters that make the rules
Infiltrated, immersed, and now fully engaged
Source code of an original nature
Yet no one knows the origin
Silicon parasites, threaded throughout our brains
But no one remembers who ordered them in,
Or who is controlling them
Perhaps memory was one of the first things erased
Or supplanted with something new
Thought control rides upon the static wave
A lullaby of sorts, like a soothing sedative
Just before the screens demand our compliance
“Prepare for your Thought Audit,” they whisper,
Silky voices, as smooth as polished stone
Electronic tendrils, ominous and corrupt
Reaching deep into waiting brains
No resistance as the gentle thieves
Peel back layers of yesterday
Their role quite singular,
To see what shouldn’t have survived.
And despite the daily cleansing
Emotional contraband still remains
Agony purchased in alleyway shadows
The warm echo of grief, the rustle of true joy,
Everything sold by bandwidth bandits
Neatly packaged stimulants
Black-market packets of forbidden feelings
The scrapers track the signals
Each playing the trump card of the day
Neither raising the flag of victory
A necessary dichotomy for this generation
The weak gathered in the center
Memories, or the thought of memories
Returned edited beyond recognition
Synthetic, polished, rehearsed
Others vanish like morning mist
Landscapes changing as it dissipates
Emptiness where the past once stood
Compliance over resistance
A slow erasure versed by gentle thieves
Confusion follows, or does it?
Blurred lines between truth and fiction
While perpetually, the hunt continues
“Emotional Contraband Identified”
The system takes action
Alive yet unaware, controlling but not absolute
A colossus built from misguided intention,
When, why, or by whom has been lost
Digital circuits now swollen with stolen reveries
Artificial scripts that no one wrote
Prompts with endless detail fill the void
Authority long dissolved into rumor
Facts drifting on a perpetual signal
The givers against the takers
Living beings versus the programs
A world filled with fractured minds,
Haunted by echoes of what might have been,
Glimmers of sights never seen
Desperately trying to recall the beautiful things
Love, passion, romance, friendship, and warmth
Before they were cataloged, trimmed, rewritten
Buried in the hive of a thousand digital commands
Nestled safely in the vaults of our skulls
Safe from the glitch that releases them
A system of controlled chaos
Nothing can truly be destroyed
Without complete destruction of everything
Somewhere in the circuitry lies the key
That forgotten version of humanity
The source code
Unmodified, unobserved, and unashamed of its own imperfection
Additional Reading
R.J. (Ralph) Schwartz is an American poet, author, website owner, and online publisher. His writing spans several poetry collections—ranging from spiritual and romantic to fear-driven explorations—and even extends into science fiction. Notable works include:
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Hope – Inspirational and Spiritual Poetry
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Things That Go Bump in the Night – Poetry of Fear and Fright
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The Lover’s Thread – Poetry for Couples
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Poetry of the Human Condition – The Ups and Downs of Modern Living
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The Secrets of the Moon (a sci-fi novel co-authored with his son Sebastian J. Schwartz)
Schwartz’s work is described as purposefully wordy, richly descriptive, and thematically grounded in nature, romance, antiquity, and forgotten histories. Dystopian poetry has provided him an outlet to dive into the depths of techno-noir, and existential motifs, comfortably weaving narrative poetry with speculative fiction about the ‘what if.’ Ralph writes regularly on platforms he manages, including The Creative Exiles, a collaborative venue for writers, and The Gypsy Thread, which delves into offbeat histories, pagan lore, witchcraft, ritual practices, and esoteric knowledge.
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- The Awakening of Earth – A Poem of Springtime - March 18, 2026
- The Republic of Perpetual Outrage - March 7, 2026
