Poem: "The Invocation Protocol"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem was inspired by a prompt from ellenmillion and is the free poem for the July 2009 Poetry Fishbowl.

The Invocation Protocol

What our ancestors
accomplished with candles,
we accomplish with electronics.
Now the glowing screen
can yield not just light
but enlightenment.

With the discovery of
the Invocation Protocol,
we can summon deities into databanks,
no longer hindered by merely human stamina.

With a call to Thor
(and a bottomless supply of virtual beer)
we gained perfect control over the climate.
Put the right drum rhythm on infinite loop,
pipe in some hot peppers,
and Ogun will map all the iron deposits on Earth.
Ishtar, mighty Ishtar,
posted Her own image
and men everywhere bowed down in worship,
then took what they had learned to mortal women
and there was marital bliss.

It was all going great -
a new golden age -

until someone
invoked Eris and
the whole net unraveled
into glorious chaos.