True Pretense

I pretend to live
To be alive, to be in existence
Executing installed programming
Like a robot, some humanatronic device
The whim of a mad scientist gone insane
Silent whirring gears
Clicking beats of an animated clock

I pretend to work
To act with busy-ness, with presence
Neither caring nor wanting to
Zombiefied
Diluted by fabricated barriers
Of coulds and could nots
On a path preset, premade and unrelenting
A routine washing, waning
Of my once dogged interest

I pretend to know
Of this world, within and beyond
Of each grief and bliss
The suffering of the one, the many
Innumerable, transcending, esoteric, hysteric
A gospel-less prophet
Regurgitating epiphanies of ancient times
In a modern era of cynicism

I pretend to care
Of your plight and of mine
Of the need to render assistance
To the oppressed, suppressed
In the eradication of poverty, inequality
Upholding freedom and liberty
And the very causes that were and are noble

I pretend to pretend
So that I need not live
Need not love, need not wish
For hope and dreams are just concepts
Never to be realized, never to manifest
In the truest facet of life's reality

To be or not to be
I choose to pretend